A    HISTORY 


OF    THE 


GERMAN  LANGUAGE 


BY 


CHARLES  W.  SUPER,  A.  M.,  PH,  D., 

President  of  the  Ohio  University;  Translator  of  Weil's  Order  of  Words,  Etc. 


"Glib  is  the  tongue  of  man,  and  many  words  are  therein 
of  every  kind,  and  wide  is  the  range  of  his  speech  hither  and 
thither." 

—  Iliad  xx :  248-9. 


COLUMBUS,  OHIO  : 

H  ANN    &    ADAIR, 

.    1893    . 


Entered  according  to  Act  of  Congress,  in  the  year  1893,  by 

CHARLES  \V.  SUPER, 
In  the  office  of  the  Librarian  of  Congress  at  Washington,  D.  C. 


"Von  alien  Orgamsmen  gehen  die  sprachlichen  unser  in- 
ner stes  Wesen  am  ndchsten  an;  macht  dock  die  Sprache  erst 
den  Menschen" — SCHLEICHER. 

"/«  dew  Menschen  liegt  ein  Etwas,  eine  quahtas  occulta, 
wenn  man  so  will,  das  ihn  von  alien  Thieren  ausnahmslos 
sondert.  Dieses  Etwas  nennen  wir  Vernunft,  wenn  wir  es 
als  innere  Wirksamkeit  denken,  wir  nennen  es  Sprache, 
sobald  wir  es  als  Auszeres,  als  Erscheinung  gewahren  iind 
aujffassen.  Keine  Vernunft  ohne  Sprache,  keine  Sprache 
ohne  Vernunft.  Die  Sprache  ist  der  Rubicon,  we  I c  her  das 
Thier  vom  Menschen  scheidet,  welchen  kein  Thier  jemals 
ilberschreiten  wird" — MAX  MtJLLER. 

"Al/e  Geschichte  beruht  bei  uns  auf  dem  Gegensatz  des 
religiosen  und  pohtischen  Lebens,  auf  der  Anerkennung 
beider  als  selbstdndig  neben  einander ;  nie  hat  der  Glaube 
uns  die  tr disc hen  Aufgaben  verges  sen  lassen,  die  dem  Men- 
schen doch  auch  obliegen  und  die  ihn  beschdftigen,  so  iange 
er  im  Schweisz  seines  Angesichts  sein  Brot  essen  musz. 
Diese  irdischen  Aufgaben  verlangen  vor  allem  eine  wirt- 
schaftliche  Ordnung,  in  der  sie  allem  gelost  werden  konnen, 
ein  Recht,  wodurch  das  duszere  Leben  gepflegt  und  ge- 
schult  wird,  und  einen  Staat,  der  den  zeithchen  Bedurf- 
niszen  entspricht  und  das  Recht  im  innern  wie  auch  nach 
auszen  zur  Erjullung  bring  I" — ARNOLD. 


TABLE   OF   CONTENTS. 


PREFACE, 7 

INTRODUCTION, 11 

GENERAL  PART. 

PRELIMINARY  OBSERVATIONS, 25 

THE  GERMAN  LANGUAGE  CONSIDERED  CHRONOLOGICALLY  AND 

TOPOGRAPHICALLY, 26 

PRE-GERMANIC  PERIOD  —  SHIFTING  OF  SOUNDS  AND  ACCENT,     .    29 

THE  GERMANIC  AND  ITS  SUB-DIVISIONS, 38 

THE  OLD  HIGH  GERMAN  PERIOD,     .  44 

THE  MIDDLE  HIGH  GERMAN  PERIOD, 59 

LANGUAGES  AND  DIALECTS 66 

THE  NEW  HIGH  GERMAN  PERIOD  — 

1.  Extent  of  Territory, 69 

2.  The  Written  Language  and  Folk-Speech,   .        .        .        .     72 

3.  Unification  in  a  Common  Literary  Language,        .        .         77 

4.  Uniformity  in  the  Spoken  Language,  .        .        .        .101 

5.  Some  Disadvantages  of  Uniformity,        .        .        .        .        110 

6.  Characteristics  of  the  New  High  German,         .        .        .113 
THE  INNER  HISTORY  OF  THE  GERMAN  LANGUAGE  - 

The  Influence  of  Analogy,  (  What  is  Analogy? )  .  .  122 
INADEQUACY  OF  THE  TRADITIONAL  VOCABULARY,  .  .  .  137 
AMPLIFICATION  OF  THE  MATERIALS  OF  SPEECH,  .  .  .  156 

1.  Changes  of  Meaning, .        .  156 

2.  Coinage  of  New  Words, 174 

3.  The  Influence  of  Foreign  Language  on  the  German  .        .  181 

SPECIAL,  F>ART. 

THE  NEW  HIGH  GERMAN  ORTHOGRAPHY, 215 

THE  ACCENT  OR  INTONATION  OF  THE  GERMAN,          .       .       .217 


vi  Table  of  Contents. 

THE  DOCTRINE  OF  SOUNDS  IN  THK  GERMAN, 2 

THE  INFLECTIONS  OF  THE  NEW  HIGH  GERMAN  — 

1.  The  Noun,  or  Substantive, 237 

2.  The  Pronoun, 

3.  The  Adjective, 253 

4.  The  Verb, •        ...       255 

WHAT  is  ANAIAXJY  IN  LANGUAGE  ? 

THE  SYNTAX  OF  THE  NEW  HIGH  GERMAN, 

THE  PARTS  OF  SPEECH,      .        . 272 

The  Noun, 

The  Verb, 285 

PROPER  NAMES— 

Names  of  Persons, 292 

Names  of  Places, 306 

APPENDIX. 


PREFACE. 


I  WAS  led  to  prepare  this  volume  under  the  conviction 
that  there  are  persons  enough  in  this  country  inter- 
ested in  the  historical  development  of  the  German  lan- 
guage to  justify  the  undertaking.  My  object  has  been  to 
produce  a  book  that  would  be  read  with  interest,  and  could 
be  read  with  profit,  by  people  whose  knowledge  of  Ger- 
man does  not  extend  much  beyond  the  rudiments  and 
who  know  next  to  nothing  of  comparative  philology. 
While  not  primarily  intended  as  a  manual  for  the  class- 
room, it  is  believed  that  it  can  be  used  with  advantage  in 
connection  with  any  German  grammar.  It  has  been  my 
constant  aim  to  make  duly  prominent  the  common  origin 
of  the  English  and  German  languages,  and  to  use  the 
facts  of  the  one  to  elucidate,  as  far  as  possible,  the  facts 
of  the  other.  It  is  only  by  the  study  of  what  has  been 
that  we  are  able  to  understand  what  is.  I  have  now  and 
then  called  attention  to  those  general  phenomena  which 
all  languages  exhibit  in  common,  and  have  thus,  in  a 
slight  measure,  invaded  the  domain  of  the  comparative 
philologist.  It  has  also  been  my  special  object  to  show 
the  relation  of  dialects  to  the  language  of  literature,  so 
that  I  would  fain  hope  this  volume  may  contribute  some- 
what to  dissipate  the  erroneous  notions  so  widely  preva- 
lent on  this  subject.  The  importance  and  persistence 
of  the  dialects  of  the  German  make  it  particularly  well 
fitted  for  exhibiting  the  relation  of  the  two  modes  of 
speech  to  each  other. 

My  original  plan  was  to  prepare  a  translation  of 
Behaghel's  Geschichte  der  deutchen  Sprache.  But  I 
soon  became  convinced  that  the  author's  point  of  view 


viii  A  History  of  the  German  Language 

ought  not  to  be  that  of  one  who  has  before  his  mind's  eye 
an  English-speaking  public.  One  who  writes  for  Ger- 
mans can  count  on  a  more  thorough  and  more  general 
knowledge  6f  phonetics,  and  on  a  larger  measure  of  pop- 
ular interest  in  the  exposition  of  its  laws.  Professor  Be- 
haghel  accordingly  confined  himself  more  closely  to, 
and  expressed  himself  more  briefly  on,  this  part  of  his 
subject  than  seemed  to  me  advisable  in  an  English  work. 
Besides,  I  am  inclined  to  believe  that  most  of  my  readers 
will  share  with  me  the  belief  that  a  word  or  a  sentence  is 
of  more  general  interest  as  the  visible  expression  of  a 
thought  than  as  an  exemplification  of  a  phonetic  law. 
Though  the  statement  may  seem  to  involve  a  contradic- 
tion, the  literary  and  pedagogical  sides  of  my  subject 
have  been  made  more  prominent  than  the  scientific  and 
technical.  It  seemed  to  me  better,  in  the  long  run,  to 
arouse  an  interest  in  the  subject  that  would  stimulate 
further  inquiry  than  to  furnish  indisputable  facts,  even  sup- 
posing such  a  thing  to  be  possible.  When  we  recall  that 
Comparative  Philology  has  been  several  times  rewritten, 
both  in  general  and  particular,  during  the  last  two  or  three 
decades,  and  that  many  of  its  problems  are  still  unsolved, 
such  a  course  must  be  regarded  as  decidedly  advisable. 

The  result  has  been  that  while  my  book  is  based  on  that 
of  Professor  Behaghel,  it  contains  a  good  deal  of  matter 
that  he  might  not  approve,  and  for  which  it  would  be  un- 
just to  hold  him  responsible.  I  desire,  however,  to  ex- 
press my  great  obligations  to  his  excellent  volume  and  to 
the  clear  manner  with  which  he  treats  his  theme.  I  know 
no  German  writer  on  this  subject  who  combines  in  an 
equal  degree  both  learning  and  lucidity.  I  have  also 
made  some  use  of  Kluge's  Etymologisches  Woerterbuch 
der  deutschen  Sprache;  Socin,  Schriftsprache  und  Dia- 
lekte  im  Deutschen;  Welker's  Dialektgedichte,  Skeat's 
Principles  of  English  Etymology,  first  and  second  series ; 
Paul's  Grundriss  der  germanischen  Philologie ;  and  Balg's 


A  History  of  the  German  Language  ix 

Glossary  of  the  Gothic  Language.  I  have  likewise 
profited  by  the  lectures  of  the  late  Professor  von  Keller, 
of  Tuebiugen,  with  whom  I  read  the  Heliand  more  than  a 
score  of  years  ago.  Several  other  works  have  been  named 
where  they  throw  light  on  special  subjects  discussed  in 
the  volume.  I  am  under  special  obligations  to  my 
brother,  O.  B.  Super,  Professor  of  Modern  Languages  in 
Dickinson  College,  for  suggestions  and  assistance.  His 
co-operation  has,  I  feel  sure,  added  no  little  to  the  value 
of  my  work. 

It  is  probable  that^  have  fallen  into  some  errors  in  trac- 
ing the  origin  and  development  of  words.  The  path  of  the 
linguistic  sciences  is  thickly  strewn  with  defunct  and  decay- 
ing etymologies,  and  that  I  have  added  some  to  the  num- 
ber is  more  than  probable.  Nevertheless,  I  have  adopted 
none  for  which  I«did  not  have  competent — I  would  fain 
believe  the  best  —  authorities,  so  that  I  have  reason  to  be- 
lieve my  mistakes  will  be  found  to  be  comparatively  few. 
It  should  be  remembered,  too,  that  the  necessity  of  being 
brief,  may  now  and  then  lead  the  reader  to  think  that  I 
have  been  mistaken,  where  a  fuller  discussion  of  the  point 
in  question  would  show  that  I  am  probably  correct  in  the 
conclusion  I  have  accepted.  Against  premature  ver- 
dicts of  this  sort  I  know  of  no  remedy  except  a  careful 
examination  of  the  evidence  on  which  I  have  proceeded. 
The  chain  may  occasionally  seem  to  be  broken  merely 
because  some  of  its  links  have  not  been  exposed  to  view. 

I  would  fain  believe  that  under  more  favorable  condi- 
tions I  could  have  produced  a  better  book  than  I  have. 
Most  of  it  was  written  at  long  intervals,  in  brief  periods  of 
an  hour  or  two  in  length.  The  official  demands  of  a 
laborious  position  ;  daily  recurring  duties  as  a  teacher ;. 
frequent  calls  for  editorial  work  in  another  field,  made 
such  large  drafts  on  my  time  that  but  little  was  left  for 
any  self-assumed  task.  What  could  have  been  done 
under  fairly  favorably  conditions  in  a  little  more  than  a 
2 


x  A  History  of  the  German  Language 

year,  occupied  me  nearly  four  years.  All  this  can  be  no 
excuse  for  any  errors  of  fact  the  volume  may  contain,  but 
it  may  be  some  palliation  .for  minor  defects  in  their  ar- 
rangement and  for  infelicities  of  style  of  which  I  fear  at- 
tentive readers  will  find  only  too  many.  For  these  the 
generous  indulgence  of  the  reader  is  asked.  My  experi- 
ence is  but  a  counterpart  of  hundreds,  perhaps  thousands, 
of  American  teachers :  whatever  they  do  in  the  line  of 
systematic  study  except  so  far  as  it  serves  the  immediate 
purposes  of  the  school  and  class-room,  is  generally  at  the 
sacrifice  of  no  little  personal  ease  and  at  the  expense  of 
hours  of  rest  and  recreation. 

If  this  volume  contributes  somewhat  to  the  better 
knowledge  of  a  language,  which,  in  my  opinion,  embodies 
a  larger  number  of  excellencies  than  any  other  of  aficient 
or  modern  times,  except  the  Greek,  I  shall  feel  that  my 
labor  has  not  been  in  vain. 

I  am  not  unaware  that  we  have  a  number  of  American 
scholars  whose  attainments  in  Germanic  Philology  are 
much  superior  to  mine,  and  who  are  in  position  to  pro- 
duce a  better  book  than  this.  As  they  have  not,  however, 
thus  far  undertaken  the  task,  at  least  so  far  as  the  public 
is  informed,  I  am  led  to  put  forth  this  modest  work  in  the 
hope  that  it  may,  at  least,  prepare  the  way  for  something 
more  excellent.  CHARLES  W.  SUPER. 

Athens,   O.,  June,  1892. 


INTRODUCTION. 


SO  far  as  we  know,  the  Germans  from  the  remotest 
times  have  lived  substantially  in  the  same  place 
where  we  now  find  them.  It  was  formerly  believed  that 
they  had  originally  emigrated  from  Asia,  but  many  of  the 
best  authorities  at  present  favor  the  theory  that  the 
Aryans  originated  in  Europe;  and  if  this  is  true,  the  Ger- 
mans must  have  come  into  existence  on  or  near  the  terri- 
tory which  they  now  occupy. 

When  we  ask  the  question  intelligently,  What  was  the  original 
abode  of  the  Aryan  race?  we  can  only  mean,  What  part  of  the 
earth's  surface  did  they  occupy  before  splitting  up  into  the  frag- 
ments that  subsequently  developed  into  a  number  of  nationalities? 
To  answer  this  we  have  nothing  except  the  slender  evidence  of  a 
very  limited  vocabulary  which  was  formed  in  accordance  with  the 
fauna,  flora  and  general  topographical  conditions  among  which  the 
race  originally  dwelt.  But  if  in  their  unity  they  wandered  about,  as 
it  is  universally  admitted  they  did,  over  countries  having  substan- 
tially the  same  physical  characteristics,  their  vocabulary  would  not 
change  either  by  increase  or  elimination.  If  these  conditions 
changed,  new  words  would  be  formed,  which  would  correspond  to 
the  new  habitat.  But  how  are  we  now  to  distinguish  these  from  the 
older  stratum,  if  the  people  who  used  them  were  still  homogeneous  ? 
Do  the  primitive  words  that  still  survive,  date  from  the  beginning  of 
their  career,  or  from  the  time  when  they  had  become  comparatively 
stable?  The  inquiry  must  always  remain  barren  of  trustworthy  re- 
sults, fascinating  as  it  is  for  the  student  of  language. 

The  first  mention  that  is  made  of  the  Germans  is  found 
in  a  description  of  a  voyage  made  by  Pytheas  of  Massilia 
about  340  B.  C.  He  speaks  of  them  as  Teutones  and  calls 
them  a  part  of  the  great  Skythian  stock.  This  mistake 
on  his  part  in  confounding  Germans  and  Skythians  is  at- 
tributable to  the  ignorance  of  the  writer.  To  the  Greeks 
all  the  people  of  northern  and  eastern  Europe  were 
Skythians, — wherever  definite  knowledge  ended  there  the 


12  A  History  of  the  German  Language 

Skythians  began.  For  the  name  "German"  we  are 
directly  indebted  to  the  Romans,  who  received  it  from  the 
Kelts.  It  probably  means  "  neighbors,"  the  Germans  being 
for  a  long  time  the  only  foreign  nation  with  whom  the 
western  Kelts  came  into  contact.  There  are  other  signifi- 
cations of  the  name  proposed,  one  of  the  best  authen- 
ticated being  "  dwellers  in  the  forest." 

Pytheas  probably  advanced  along  the  coast  of  the  North 
Sea  as  far  as  the  mouth  of  the  Eider,  and  in  the  region  of 
the  Elbe,  according  to  his  account,  was  the  dividing  line 
between  Kelts  and  Teutons.  Later  investigations  tend 
to  show  that  Pytheas  was  correct  in  this  matter,  for  many 
of  the  proper  names  in  northwestern  Germany,  especially 
in  the  valley  of  the  Ems,  are  now  known  to  be  of  Keltic 
origin. 

The  dividing  line  on  the  south  of  the  Germans  was  the 
Hercynian  Forest,  which  is  merely*a  general  term  for  the 
range  of  hills  and  mountains  extending  entirely  through 
central  Germany.  Hercynia  is  itself  a  Keltic  name 
allied  to  Kymric  erchymiad,  elevation.  Precisely  at  what 
time  they  extended  their  boundaries  westward,  it  is  impos- 
sible to  say,  but  the  extension  in  that  direction  occurred 
earlier  than  in  a  southern  direction,  for  in  Caesar's  time 
the  Rhine  was  substantially  the  boundary  between  the 
two  nations,  the  Menapii  being  the  only  Keltic  tribe  still 
remaining  east  of  the  Rhine,  and  they  only  in  part.  It 
was  about  this  time  that  the  Volcse,  who  were  then  living 
in  the  valley  of  the  Main,  were  driven  out  by  the  Mar- 
comanni  and  Chatti.  Near  the  same  time  three  German 
tribes,  the  Vangiones,  Nemeti  and  Triboci  settled  along 
the  Rhine,  occupying  the  territory  in  the  above  order  from 
the  mouth  of  the  Neckar  to  the  Swiss  boundary.  Shortly 
before  this  (about  72  B.  C.)  Ariovistus  had  led  his  Ger- 
mans across  the  Rhine  and  settled  in  eastern  Gaul. 

On  the  east,  the  Germans  were  shut  in  by  the  Slavs 
who  were  pressing  westward.  A  line  drawn  from  Koen- 


A  History  of  the  German  Language  13 

igsberg,  in  Prussia,  to  the  confluence  of  the  Bug  and 
Vistula  and  then  following  the  latter  to  its  source,  will 
indicate  the  boundary  between  Slavs  and  Germans. 

Although  Sweden  has  been  regarded  by  some  as  the 
original  home  of  the  Germans,  it  is  more  likely  that  that 
country  was  at  one  time  inhabited  entirely  by  Finns,  and 
that  these  were  gradually  driven  northward  by  the  en- 
croachments of  the  Germans,  who  crossed  over  either 
from  Germany  or  Denmark.  Certain  it  is  that  Finnish 
antiquities  have  been  found  in  almost  every  part  of 
Sweden. 

But  this  limited  space  soon  proved  too  small  for  a 
people  who  increased  so  rapidly  as  the  Germans,  and 
emigration  became  a  necessity,  especially  since  their 
eastern  neighbors  not  only  prohibited  expansion  in  that 
direction,  but  were  actually  crowding  them  westward. 
However,  there  is  not  much  doubt  that  the  rapid  in- 
crease of  population  common  among  the  Germans  will 
furnish  a  sufficient  explanation  of  these  vast  swarms  of 
emigrants. 

The  first  of  the  German  tribes  to  leave  their  homes  en 
masse  was  the  Bastarnae,  who  are  found  north  and  west  of 
the  mouth  of  the  Danube  as  early  as  the  second  century 
B.  C.  Next  came  the  great  emigration  of  the  Cirnbri  and 
Teutons.  The  latter  started  from  the  shores  of  the  North 
Sea,  and  there  is  a  tradition  that  they  were  compelled  to 
leave  their  homes  on  account  of  an  incursion  of  the 
ocean ;  which  is  not  improbable,  since  the  whole  north- 
west coast  of  Germany  is  so  little  elevated  above  the  sea 
level  that  the  tide  can  only  be  kept  out  by  artificial  means. 
Notwithstanding  the  dykes,  about  15,000  persons  perished 
in  a  single  night  in  1634  by  a  high  tide  on  the  west  coast 
of  Schleswig-Holstein.  These  Teutons  moved  toward  the 
southeast,  and  the  Cimbri,  who  lived  on  the  left  bank  of 
the  Elbe  in  the  region  of  the  present  Magdeburg,  joined 
them  in  their  expedition  and  formed  its  van-guard.  On 


14  A  History  of  the  German  Language 

their  march  they  came  in  contact  with  the  Boii,  a 
Keltic  tribe  living  in  what  is  now  called  Bohemia  (i.  e. 
home  or  land  of  the  Boii).  Prevented  from  settling  here, 
they  continued  their  journey  to  the  southeast,  across 
the  Danube,  through  Pannonia  until  they  came  into  the 
land  of  the  Scordisci,  a  Keltic  tribe  living  about  the 
junction  of  the  Save  and  the  Danube.  They  must  have 
arrived  here  about  114  B.  C.  Defeated  in  a  battle  with  the 
Scordisci,  they  retreated  toward  the  northwest,  and  on 
their  way  met  and  defeated  the  Roman  Consul,  Papirius 
Carbo,  at  Noreia,  113  B.  C.  They  then  advanced  west- 
ward, passing  apparently  unhindered  through  the  territory 
of  the  Helvetians,  and  arriving  on  the  Rhone,  on  the 
confines  of  the  Roman  Province,  109  B.  C.  Here  they 
defeated  the  Consul  Silvanus,  but  instead  of  marching 
directly  into  Italy,  they  began  to  plunder  Gaul,  which 
they  subjugated  almost  entirely.  In  the  year  105  they 
gained  another  great  victory  over  the  Romans  at  Arausio 
(Orange)  after  which  the  Cimbri  separated  from  the 
Teutons  and  returned  into  the  heart  of  Gaul.  They  soon 
afterwards  made  an  expedition  into  Spain  and  plundered 
the  northwestern  part  of  it,  but  having  been  defeated  by 
the  Keltiberians,  they  returned  to  Gaul  in  the  year  103 
B.  C.  In  the  year  following,  the  Teutons  were  defeated 
and  nearly  annihilated  by  Marius  at  Aquae  Sextise,  in  the 
Province,  and  the  Cimbri  at  Vercellse,  in  northwestern 
Italy,  in  the  following  year. 

It  does  not  lie  within  the  scope  of  the  present  volume 
to  give  in  this  Introduction  a  history  of  the  various  Ger- 
man tribes.  Such  a  history  must,  from  the  nature  of  the 
case,  consist  largely  of  the  discussion  of  obscure  points  and 
contradictory,  or,  at  least,  apparently  contradictory  state- 
ments made  by  ancient  writers  about  them.  But  it  will 
be  proper  to  give  a  brief  account  of  those  tribes  that  made 
expeditions  beyond  the  German  territory,  and  for  a  while 
exerted  an  influence  upon  the  destinies  of  the  countries 


A  History  of  the  German  Language  15 

through  which  they  passed,  or  in  which  they  sojourned 
for  a  greater  or  less  time.  We  shall  thus  get  a  fuller  in- 
sight into  the  character  of  the  German  people  than  their 
language  alone  is  able  to  give  us.  Such  a  preliminary 
sketch  is  the  more  important  for  the  reason  that  it  relates, 
for  the  most  part,  to  a  period  from  which  the  existing  lin- 
guistic remains  are  very  scanty. 

The  German  nation  as  such  is  some  eight  hundred 
years  old ;  but  during  most  of  this  time  it  was  broken  up 
into  an  almost  countless  number  of  different  governments 
under  many  different  names,  and  varying  greatly  in  ex- 
tent of  territory.  At  the  beginning  of  this  period  the 
tribal  differences  had  been  to  a  considerable  extent  oblit- 
erated, and  tribal  affinities  no  longer  formed  a  bond  be- 
tween the  subjects  of  the  different  rulers. 

The  Bastarnse  were,  according  to  Zeuss,  the  first  Ger- 
man tribe  of  whom  we  have  any  fairly  definite  knowledge. 
At  this  time  they  dwelt  about  the  headwaters  of  the 
Vistula.  They  are  subsequently  found  north  and  west  of 
the  Danube.  In  the  reign  of  Perseus,  king  of  Macedon, 
they  formed  an  alliance  with  this  monarch  against  the 
Romans.  Still  later  they  are  found  in  the  service  of 
Mithridates,  king  of  Pontus.  In  fact,  they  appear  several 
times  among  the  enemies  of  Rome,  until  the  time  of  the 
emperor  Probus,  toward  the  close  of  the  third  century> 
when  they  disappear  from  history. 

We  first  hear  of  the  Burgundians  in  the  present  pro- 
vince of  Posen.  In  the  third  century  of  our  era  they 
emigrated  toward  the  southwest,  and  lived,  during  nearly 
the  whole  of  the  fourth  century,  along  the  upper  Main. 
Toward  the  end  of  the  century  they  came  to  the  Rhine, 
where  they  founded  a  kingdom  with  Worms  as  its  capital. 
It  is  here  that  the  legends  of  the  Nibelungen  find  them. 
In  consideration  of  their  services  to  the  Romans  as  mer- 
cenary troops,  they  were  permitted  to  establish  themselves 
in  eastern  Gaul,  especially  in  the  basin  of  the  Rhone. 


16  A  History  of  the  German  Language 

Toward  the  close  of  the  ninth  century  we  find  in  this 
region  two  Burgundian  kingdoms,  one  of  which  was  called 
the  ''cisjuran,''  the  other  the  '' transjuran."  These  ex- 
isted separately  for  some  twenty-five  years,  when  they  were 
again  united.  For  more  than  four  centuries  Burgundy 
was  regarded  as  at  least  nominally  a  part  of  the  German 
Empire.  The  dukedom  of  Burgundy  lay  north  of  these 
two  kingdoms,  and  under  a  succession  of  ambitious  rulers 
played  an  important  part  in  the  history  of  France. 
Though  varying  considerably,  at  different  times  in  extent 
of  territory,  it  had  a  separate  existence  until  near  the  close 
of  the  seventeenth  century,  when  it  shared  the  destiny 
that  had  befallen  the  larger  part  of  the  Burgundian  king- 
doms much  earlier,  and  was  absorbed  by  France. 

The  Lombards,  whose  tribal  affinities  allied  them  with 
the  Suevi,  first  appear  about  the  lower  course  of  the  Elbe. 
They  were  probably  the  last  of  the  German  tribes  to  leave 
their  homes  en  masse.  For  a  long  time  they  do  not  seem 
to  have  played  a  prominent  part  in  the  various  tribal 
wars  and  expeditions.  So  late  as  the  middle  of  the  fifth 
century  they  were  subjects  of  the  Heruli  in  Moravia. 
Subsequently  they  defeated  these  and  made  themselves 
masters  of  considerable  territory  in  what  is  now  Hungary. 
Later  still  they  formed  a  union  with  a  horde  of  Saxons 
with  whom  they  marched  across  the  Alps,  and  before  the 
end  of  the  sixth  century  they  had  made  themselves  mas- 
ters of  all  northern  Italy.  Here  they  founded  a  kingdom, 
with  Milan  as  its  capital,  that  lasted  two  hundred  years. 
Their  history,  which  is'  a  turbulent  one,  can  be  traced 
until  the  time  of  Karl  the  Great,  who  made  their  territory 
a  part  of  his  empire.  Though  never  numerous,  they  main- 
tained their  supremacy  by  their  valor.  Few  traces  of 
them  now  remain,  the  most  conspicuous  being  the  name 
Lombardy,  which  is  still  applied  to  that  part  of  Italy 
which  they  once  held  in  subjection. 

The  Vandals  first  emerge  into  the  dim  light  of  history 


A  History  of  the  German  Language  17 

dwelling  along  the  mid-course  of  the  Oder.  Like  most  of 
their  brethren  they  joined  various  expeditions  against  the 
Romans,  but  subsequently  adopted  a  more  settled  life  in 
Pannonia.  About  the  beginning  of  the  fifth  century  they 
forced  their  way  across  Gaul  into  Spain,  where  they 
founded  a  kingdom,  the  name  of  which  is  still  preserved 
in  that  of  the  province  Andalusia.  They  afterward  passed 
over  into  Africa,  subdued  its  northern  portion,  captured 
Carthage,  which  they  made  their  capital,  built  large  fleets 
with  which  they  plundered  the  islands  of  the  Mediter- 
ranean, as  well  as  the  adjacent  coasts,  and  finally  took 
Rome  itself.  As  is  wont  to  be  the  case,  they  now  began 
to  degenerate  by  reason  of  their  prosperity  and  fancied 
security.  In  the  year  524  their  King  Gelimer  was 
defeated  by  the  Roman  general  Belisarius,  and  taken  to 
Constantinople  to  grace  his  triumph,  while  the  kingdom 
of  the  Vandals  was  made  a  part  of  the  Eastern  Empire. 

The  Goths  had  a  tradition  that  their  original. home  was 
on  an  island  called  Scandzia,  and  there  may  be  some  con- 
nection between  their  name  and  that  of  the  southermost 
province  of  Sweden.  In  the  time  of  Tacitus  .they  lived 
along  the  lower  course  of  the  Vistula.  Probably  about 
the  middle  of  the  second  century  they  started  on  their 
long  march  toward  the  southwest,  which  ended  by  their 
settling  in  the  regions  north  and  west  of  the  Black  Sea. 
Here  they  soon  appear  as  Eastern  and  Western  Goths, 
these  appellations  designating  the  relative  geographical 
positions  which  their  two  main  divisions  occupy  to  each 
other.  For  a  period  of  nearly  two  centuries  they  made 
occasional  incursions  into  the  Roman  empire.  It  was  in 
one  of  these  raids  that  they  burned  the  splendid  temple  of 
Artemis  in  the  year  260.  (See  Acts  of  the  Apostles, 
chapter  19.)  A  few  years  before  the  beginning  of  the 
fifth  century  the  Eastern  Gothic  tribes  were  subdued  by 
the  Huns,  but  the  Western  Goths  continued  to  plunder 
southeastern  Europe,  and  crossing  over  into  Italy  they 


18  A  History  of  the  German  Language 

finally  captured  Rome  itself  in  410.  Still  continuing  to 
move  westward  they  are  found  for  three  centuries  longer 
in  France,  Spain,  and  Africa,  when  they  disappear  from 
history.  The  remembrance  of  their  former  presence  is 
still  preserved  in  the  name  of  the  Spanish  province,  Cata- 
lonia (Gotalonia).  The  Eastern  Goths,  as  subjects  of  the 
Huns,  took  part  in  several  of  the  expeditions  of  their  king 
Attila.  After  the  death  of  this  monarch  they  achieved 
their  independence,  and  settled  in  what  is  now  Austria 
proper.  Somewhat  later  they  made  an  expedition  into 
Italy,  the  northern  portion  of  which  they  brought  under 
subjection,  and  finally  extended  their  rule  over  the  entire 
peninsula.  After  varying  fortunes  they  disappear  as  a 
separate  people,  toward  the  end  of  the  sixth  century. 

A  glance  at  the  map  of  Europe  in  the  last  quarter  of  the 
fifth  century,  when  their  power  was  at  its  zenith,  shows 
the  following  territory  in  the  possession  of  the  Germans  : 
The  Suevi  were  masters  of  the  northwestern  portion  of  the 
Iberian  peninsula.  Their  kingdom  was  about  as  large  as 
Portugal.  The  Western  Goths  possessed  the  remainder 
of  the  peninsula  and  France  as  far  northward  as  the  river 
Loire.  The  kingdom  of  the  Burgundians  lay  in  the  basin 
of  the  Rhone.  The  Franks  held  sway  over  an  extensive 
territory  lying  on  both  sides  of  the  Rhine  between 
Treves,  Mayence  and  the  North  Sea.  North  and  east 
of  them  were  the  Saxons.  Toward  the  south  between  the 
Franks  and  the  Burgundians  were  the  Alemani,  and  east 
of  the  Saxons,  Franks  and  Alemani  were  the  Thuringians, 
a  people  whose  eastern  boundary  cannot  be  defined.  The 
head-waters  of  the  Oder  were  occupied  by  the  Longobardi ; 
directly  south  of  them  dwelt  the  Heruli ;  and  still  further 
south,  between  the  Danube  and  the  river  Aluta,  were  the 
lands  of  the  Gepids.  West  of  the  last  two  tribes  lay  the 
kingdom  of  the  Ostrogoths,  some  of  whom  were,  however, 
in  Illyria  and  subjects  of  the  Eastern  Empire.  The 
Rugians  had  settled  in  the  Grand  Duchy  of  Austria  on. 


A  History  of  the  German  Language  19 

both  sides  of  the  Danube.  From  here  to  the  Mediter- 
ranean, including  Italy  and  Sicily,  stretched  the  kingdom 
of  Odoacer,  while  the  Vandals  held  in  subjection  most  of 
Africa  west  of  the  Great  Syrtis,  Corsica,  Sardinia,  and  the 
Balearic  Isles.  The  Saxons  and  Angles  had  just  begun  to 
make  settlements  on  the  coast  of  England. 

After  this  brief  survey  of  the  earliest  history  of  the  Ger- 
mans we  next  proceed  to  define  the  relation  of  the  Teu- 
tonic to  the  other  most  important  languages  of  the  world. 
It  seems  important  to  do  so  here,  though  we  shall  find  it 
necessary  to  repeat  some  of  our  statements  farther  along. 

The  German  is  an  important  member  of  the  great  family 
of  languages  variously  designated  as  the  Aryan,  the  Indo- 
Germanic  and  the  Indo-European.  This  family  is  usually 
divided  by  philologists  into  nine  different  groups  or 
branches  of  which  three  belong  to  Asia  and  six  to  Europe. 

The  Keltic,  the  most  westerly  of  these  groups,  is  at 
present  the  native  speech  of  three  or  four  millions  of 
people  in  Scotland,  Wales,  Ireland  and  a  few  departments 
of  France.  Aside  from  a  small  number  of  inscriptions 
found  chiefly  in  the  region  of  the  central  Saone  little  is 
known  of  the  Keltic  in  its  earliest  forms.  The  oldest 
monuments  of  the  Welsh  dialect  date  from  the  eighth 
century  and  consist  chiefly  of  legendary  poems  and  chroni- 
cles. The  Breton,  another  dialect  of  the  Keltic,  was 
probably  transplanted  into  France  in  the  fifth  century. 
It  closely  resembles  the  Welsh  though  its  literary  monu- 
ments are  not  older  than  the  fourteenth  century.  Some- 
what later  it  is  largely  represented  in  glosses  to  Latin 
authors  and  in  the  Middle  Ages  it  possessed  an  extensive 
literature  in  the  form  of  Chronicles,  Legends,  and  Laws. 

The  Slavic  is  the  most  easterly  of  the  European  groups 
and  is  spoken  by  about  ninety  millions  of  people. 
Numerically  it  is  the  first  in  importance  of  the  exclusively 
continental  groups.  It  is  the  principal  language  of  Russia 
in  Europe,  and  to  it  belong  the  Polish,  the  Bohemian  (or 


20  A  History  of  the  German  Language 

Czech),  the  Servian,  the  Bulgarian  and  a  number  of  less 
important  dialects.  The  earliest  monuments  of  the  Polish 
language  date  from  the  tenth  century,  and  Bohemia  had 
.an  extensive  literature  dating  from  the  Middle  Ages  and  ex- 
tending to  the  time  of  the  Hussite  wars.  The  alphabet  of 
the  Slavic  was  adapted  from  the  Greek  though  very  in- 
adequate to  its  intended  purpose,  by  the  brothers  Cyrillus 
and  Methodius  who  first  preached  Christianity  to  the 
Bulgarians  in  the  ninth  century.  Its  oldest  literary  re- 
mains are  the  Gospels  translated  by  the  missionaries  and 
some  liturgical  works  in  the  Old  Bulgarian,  which,  though 
not  the  mother  of  the  other  Slavic  tongues,  stands  in  the 
relation  of  an  older  sister.  Where  this  language  was 
spoken  has  not  been  definitely  determined,  but  probably 
somewhere  in  the  region  between  the  Black  and  Adriatic 
Seas.  Slavic  dialects  are  still  used  to  some  extent  in 
Saxony  and  Prussia  and  at  one  time  a  considerable  por- 
tion of  what  is  now  Germany  was  occupied  by  Slavs. 

The  Lithuanian  group  is  spoken  by  about  two  and 
a  half  millions  of  people  in  northeastern  Prussia  and  the 
adjoining  territory  of  Russia.  Its  literature  is  of  very  little 
importance  and  it  hardly  at  any  time  attained  the  dignity 
of  a  written  language.  But  this  group  is  of  great  interest 
to  philologists  because  it  has  conserved  in  a  remarkable 
degree  some  prominent  characteristics  of  the  primitive 
Indo-European  language. 

The  Italian  group  has  no  extant  literature  of  any  im- 
portance of  earlier  date  than  the  comedies  of  Plautus, 
though  there  are  some  fragments  of  older  date  both  in 
Latin  and  other  Italic  dialects.  Its  most  important  ex- 
tant representatives  are  the  French,  the  Spanish,  the 
Portuguese,  and  the  Italian. 

The  Greek  group  has  been  confined  from  the  remotest 
times  to  substantially  the  same  territory  it  now  occupies. 
Its  literary  monuments  are  several  centuries  older  than 
those  of  any  other  European  language.  It  has  never  been 


A  History  of  the  German  Language  21 

spoken  by  a  very  large  number  of  persons,  but  its  influ- 
ence upon  the  civilization  of  the  world  has  been  much 
greater  than  that  of  any  other  group.  Its  dialects  have 
diverged  less,  generally  speaking,  from  the  parent  lan- 
guage than  has  been  the  case  with  any  other  member  of 
the  Indo-European  stock,  and  modern  Greek  is  still  sub- 
stantially the  same  language  it  was  nearly  three  thousand 
years  ago. 

The  Germanic  or  Teutonic  group  embraces  the  Ger- 
man proper,  the  Dutch,  the  English,  the  Danish, 
and  the  Swedish.  German  proper  is  the  native  language 
of  about  sixty  millions  of  people  in  continental  Europe,, 
but  the  Teutonic  group  of  languages  is  not  only  spoken 
by  a  larger  number  of  persons  than  any  other  of  the  Indo- 
European  stock,  but  it  represents  the  most  potent  influ- 
ence in  literature,  science  and  all  the  arts  of  civilized  life. 
Its  oldest  extant  literature  is  represented  by  the  Maeso- 
Gothic  dialect  and  dates  from  the  close  of  the  fourth  cen- 
tury. This  dialect  was  at  that  time  spoken  in  the  region 
of  the  lower  Danube,  probably  in  what  is  now  Bulgaria. 

The  earliest  literary  monuments  of  the  German  lan- 
guage, aside  from  the  translation  of  the  Bible  by  Ulfilas,. 
are  confined,  roughly  speaking,  to  southwestern  Germany. 
We  first  meet  with  the  so-called  glosses  or  interlinear 
translations  of  Latin  texts  into  German,  and  lists  of  Latin 
words  arranged  either  alphabetically  or  according  to 
subjects  with  their  equivalents  in  German.  These  were 
prepared  for  pedagogical  purposes.  There  are  extant  two- 
longer  poems  dating  from  the  ninth  century — the  old 
Saxon  Heliand,  a  sort  of  New  Testament  history  by  an 
unknown  author,  and  Otfried's  Harmony  of  the  Gospels. 
Toward  the  end  of  the  eleventh  century  we  meet  with  sev- 
eral longer  religious  poems.  Nevertheless,  the  literature  of 
the  ninth,  tenth  and  eleventh  centuries,  must  be  called 
scanty,  and  all  of  it  together  makes  a  volume  of  but  mod- 
erate size.  To  the  close  of  the  eighth  century  belong  like- 


22  A  History  of  the  German  Language 

wise  some  brief  translations  of  liturgies  and  catechetical 
writings.  The  ninth  century  adds  some  other  religious 
writings  and  translated  portions  of  the  Bible.  The  Com- 
mentary of  Notker  is  usually  assigned  to  about  the  year 
1000,  and  it  is  believed  that  Willeram's  Paraphrase  of  the 
Song  of  Solomon  is  about  a  century  younger.  Both  these 
contain  a  liberal  intermixture  of  Latin. 

This  literature  is  somewhat  widely  distributed,  but  it 
belongs  chiefly  to  Austrian  Germany,  Bavaria,  eastern 
Switzerland,  Alsatia  and  Fulda,  once  an  independent 
bishopric,  but  now  a  part  of  Prussia.  The  Heliand  above 
mentioned  is  of  a  more  northern  origin.  With  the  twelfth 
century  German  poetry  entered  upon  a  career  of  rapid 
development  and  toward  its  close  the  culmination  of  the 
first  classical  period  had  been  attained.  It  was,  however, 
still  confined  chiefly  to  South  Germany,  and  it  is  only  in 
the  two  following  centuries  that  there  is  an  intellectual 
movement  northward.  The  prose  literature  of  the 
twelfth  century  consists  chiefly  of  sermons,  and  its  mass  is 
largely  increased  during  the  thirteenth  and  fourteenth  cen- 
turies. To  the  first  part  of  the  thirteenth  century  must 
be  assigned  the  so-called  Sachsenspiegel,  a  collection  of 
provincial  laws,  and  this  is  a  few  decades  earlier  than  the 
Schwabenspiegel,  a  similar  collection.  These  are  the  first 
legal  writings  in  German.  Of  about  the  same  age  is  the 
first  historical  work  in  the  native  language,  a  Chronicle  of 
the  World,  in  Low-German.  Toward  the  close  of  the 
thirteenth  century  we  begin  to  meet  with  German  title- 
deeds  and  other  official  documents.  With  the  fourteenth 
century  they  increase  in  number  rapidly.  The  earliest  of 
these  belong  to  southwestern  Germany,  but  before  the  end 
of  the  thirteenth  century  they  are  met  with  in  almost  all 
parts  of  the  nation,  except  the  eastern  parts  of  what  is 
now  Prussia.  The  German  is  employed  to  considerable 
extent  for  purposes  of  historical  narration,  and  in  the  fif- 
teenth century  literature  proper  (belles  lettres)  is  exten- 


23 

sively  cultivated.  During  this  period  many  devotional 
books  and  translations  of  portions  of  the  Bible  were  pub- 
lished and  widely  read.  The  rise  of  Protestantism  was 
favorable  to  the  cultivation  of  German,  and  in  the  six- 
teenth century  it  had  become  the  recognized  medium  for 
the  adherents  of  this  faith,  while  the  Latin  continued  to 
be  the  official  language  of  the  Church  of  Rome.  But  the 
rise  of  the  German  universities  was  unfavorable  to  the 
German  language.  The  Latin  continued  to  be  the  means 
of  communication  among  the  learned  in  all  the  profes- 
sions, and  the  use  of  the  German  was  considered  unworthy 
of  the  scholar.  According  to  Paulsen  seventy  per  cent, 
of  the  books  printed  in  Germany  about  the  year  1570  were 
in  the  Latin  language.  At  no  other  time  does  the  Ger- 
man seem  to  have  been  so  far  in  the  background,  and  from 
this  point  it  begins  to  move  slowly  to  the  front.  But  not 
until  1680  were  more  German  books  published  than  Latin. 
In  1730'only  about  one-third  of  the  issues  from  the  press 
were  Latin,  and  toward  the  close  of  the  century  this  lan- 
guage had  virtually  ceased  to  be  in  general  use  even 
among  scholars.  The  proportion  of  Latin  and  German 
seems  to  have  varied  considerably  in  the  writings  pertain- 
ing to  the  different  professions  and  departments  of  learn- 
ing. In  the  domain  of  Protestant  theology  German 
probably  predominated  from  the  first,  except  in  purely 
doctrinal  discussions.  In  historical  works  German  was 
chiefly  used  as  early  as  the  end  of  the  seventeenth  cen- 
tury;  it  also  predominated  for  philosophy  and  medicine  at 
the  beginning  of  the  eighteenth  century.  For  writings 
on  jurisprudence  Latin  continued  to  be  chiefly  employed 
until  about  the  middle  of  the  eighteenth  century,  when 
for  the  first  time  German  works  are  in  the  majority.  At 
the  universities  Latin  was  exclusively  used  in  the  lectures 
until  1687.  From  this  time  German  came  into  use  grad- 
ually, but  Latin  was  not  entirely  superseded  until  quite 
recently.  It  was  largely  owing  to  this  preference  for 


24  A  History  of  the  German  Language 

Latin  as  the  language  of  books  that  the  Germans  were  the 
latest  of  all  the  important  nations  of  Europe  to  develop  a 
modern  classical  literature.  For  about  two  hundred  years 
anterior  to  the  appearance  of  Goethe,  Germany  produced 
hardly  a  single  work  belonging  to  the  department  of 
belles  lettres.  The  best  intellects  devoted  themselves  to 
the  study  of  antique  life,  and  the  literature  in  which  it  is 
embodied,  in  apparent  ignorance  of  the  unlimited  capabil- 
ities of  their  mother  tongue.  This  unwise  and  almost  ex- 
clusive devotion  to  foreign  languages  had  a  deleterious 
effect  on  even  those  authors  who  wrote  in  German.  Not 
having  had  the  rhetorical  training  of  the  writers  of  an- 
tiquity their  sentences  are  generally  long  and  lumbering, 
inartistically  constructed  and  heavy. 

During  a  part  of  the  eighteenth  century  this  predilec- 
tion for  foreign  languages  and  literature  manifested  itself 
in  a  new  direction,  and  French  was  cultivated  to  a  consid- 
able  extent.  This  was  especially  the  case  among  the 
nobility,  and  those  who  aped  their  manners.  It  is  chiefly 
due  to  the  influence  and  writings  of  L,essing,  Goethe,  and 
Schiller  that  modern  German  literature  attained  the  high 
place  it  now  holds. 


GENERAL  PART. 


PRELIMINARY  OBSERVATIONS. 

THERE  is,  perhaps,  nothing  that  we  can  study  and 
investigate  that  is  more  mysterious  than  lan- 
guage. We  may  divide  and  subdivide,  and  analyze 
as  much  as  we  please,  there  always  remains  a  resi- 
duum that  defies  our  closest  scrutiny.  We  know  that 
a  word  belonging  to  an  unfamiliar  foreign  language  affects 
the  mind,  the  sensorium,  differently  from  one  to  which  we 
are  accustomed.  We  may  say  that  one  enters  the  intel- 
lect, while  the  other  only  enters  the  ear.  We  talk  about 
an  awakened  image,  a  responsive  chord  ;  but  there  is  no 
real  image  and  no  actual  chord.  These  are  but  figures  of 
speech  taken  from  the  material  world  intended  to  illus- 
trate, as  well  as  they  may,  psychic  processes.  They  are 
symbols  of  which  the  value  is  pretty  generally  under- 
stood, but  they  are  only  symbols.  We  have  no  name  and 
no  designation  for  the  thing  itself. — no  words  that  in  the 
first  instance  were  used,  only  of  mental  operations.  Lan- 
guage is  something  with  which  we  operate,  something  of 
which  the  power  and  functions  are  well  known,  but  of  Us 
essence  we  know  little  or  nothing.  We  often  talk  of  lan- 
guage as  if  it  was  something  external,  or  as  if  it  were  the 
dead  matter  that  we  find  written  or  printed,  when  in 
truth  it  has  no  existence,  is  not  language  in  the  proper 
sense  of  the  word,  if  it  is  not  vitalized  by  life  and  thought. 
The  body  of  language,  the  living  and  only  real  word 
exists  but  the  moment  it  is  uttered  ;  its  imperfect  image  is 
sometimes  fixed  on  the  printed  page,  or  on  some  plastic 
substance  ;  which,  however,  tells  us  nothing  until  brought 
in  contact  with  the  living,  thinking  mind. 
3 


26  A  History  of  the  German  Language 

There  are  languages  that  are  not  written  ;  tens  of 
thousands  of  dialects  exist,  or  have  existed,  that  were 
never  put  in  books  or  on  paper,  and  yet  they  were  or  are 
as  truly  human  speech  as  those  that  are  the  custodians  of 
the  most  extensive  literature.  We  are  too  apt  to  regard 
the  language  we  find  written  or  printed  as  the  only  real 
language,  when,  in  fact,  it  is  nothing  more  than  its  faint 
image.  I  look  at  the  instrument  with  which  I  write.  I 
think  of  it  as  the  pen,  die  Feder,  la  plume,  designating  it 
by  a  different  name  in  each  language  with  which  I  am 
acquainted.  Here  the  thing  awakens  in  my  mind  what  I 
may  call  a  vocal  image,  even  though  I  do  not  necessarily 
give  it  voice.  Or  I  hear  some  one  pronounce  the  name  of 
the  object,  and  it  at  once  brings  before  my  ''  mind's  eye  " 
the  concept  of  the  pen,  and  so  there  goes  on  incessantly 
in  the  world,  and  has  gone  on  for  countless  ages,  this 
transition  from  concept  to  vocal  expression, — this  transla- 
tion of  thought  into  words;  and  from  vocal  expression 
to  concept,  the  transmutation  of  vocal  expression  into 
thought.  We  think,  then  speak  or  write  ;  others  speak  or 
write,  and  their  words  stimulate  thought  in  us. 


THE  GERMAN  LANGUAGE  CONSIDERED  CHRONOLOGICALLY 
AND   TOPOGRAPHICALLY. 

Matters  of  every  day  occurrence  rarely  attract  our  atten- 
tion or  stimulate  us  to  reflection.  Nothing  is  more  com- 
mon than  the  words  that  make  up  our  speech — the  sen- 
tences we  meet  in  our  ordinary  reading.  These  things 
are,  however,  rarely  the  subject  of  remark  among  the  illit- 
erate, to  whom  language  is  something  that  exists  as  a  mat- 
ter of  course.  But  among  people  of  intelligence  there  is 
a  lively  interest  in  the  phenomena  of  speech  or  language, 
and  they  are  frequently  the  theme  of  friendly  discussion. 
How  are  certain  facts  to  be  explained?  If  we  ourselves- 


A  Jfisfory  of  the  German  Language  27 

always  used  the  same  form  of  expression  for  the  same 
thought,  or  saw  others  doing  so,  there  is  no  doubt  that 
questions  of  language  would  interest  us  as  little  as  the 
observation  that  water  flows  down  hill,  or  that  iron  rusts. 
But  the  phenomena  of  speech  do  not  have  this  uniformity  '•> 
our  attention  is  continually  drawn  to  differences  in  the 
time,  the  place,  and  the  personality  of  the  speaker. 

While  it  may  seem  perfectly  natural  for  the  educated 
man  of  the  present  day  to  take  note  of  these  phenomena, 
and  in  accordance  with  the  scientific  spirit  of  our  time,  to 
arrange  them  so  far  as  may  be  in  categories,  the  world 
has  made  slow  progress  toward  this  attainment. 

The  Hebrews  had  no  grammar  of  their  language  until 
more  than  a  thousand  years  after  Christ.  The  Greeks 
made  no  scientific  study  of  their  language  during  its 
Golden  Age  ;  and  not  till  it  had  sunk  far  in  decay,  or 
about  half  a  century  B.  C.,  was  the  first  Greek  gram- 
mar composed.  This  became  the  basis  of  nearly  all 
subsequent  grammars  of  both  the  Greek  and  Latin  lan^ 
guages.  The  grammatical  study  of  the  Teutonic  Ian-, 
guages,  in  a  truly  scientific  spirit,  dates  from  the  appear- 
ance of  Grimm's  Deutsche  Grammatik,  at  the  beginning 
of  the  present  century.  But  good  grammars  of  either 
English  or  German  for  young  learners  are  hardly,  older 
than  the  present  generation.  It  is  the  different  ways  in. 
which  the  same  thought  may  be  expressed  that  more  than, 
anything  else  awakens  reflection  upon  language.  These 
differences  are  not  merely  casual,  but  are  the  necessary 
phenomena  which  make  up  the  life  of  a  language.  To 
record  and  explain,  as  far  as  it  can  be  done,  the  changes 
which  a  language  undergoes,  is  to  write  its  history.  This 
present  work  is  intended  to  be  a  brief  resume  of  the  most 
important  changes  the  German  language  has  undergone 
from  the  earliest  period  within  our  knowledge  up  to  our 
day  ;  for  it  is  only  after  a  study  of  its  growth  that  we  are. 
in  a  position  to  understand  its  present  structure. 


28  A  History  of  the  German  Language 

The  German  language,  as  the  term  is  generally  under- 
stood and  as  it  is  here  employed,  is  the  speech  used  by 
the  different  members  of  the  German  family,  but  this 
should  be  carefully  distinguished  from  the  Germanic 
family,  which  is  more  comprehensive.  Its  territory  is  in 
the  main,  that  embraced  within  the  German  empire,  but 
extending  somewhat  beyond  its  borders  so  as  to  include 
a  part  of  Switzerland,  German  Austria,  contiguous  por- 
tions of  Russia,  and  settlements  in  other  parts  of  the 
world.  The  language  of  the  Netherlands  may  also  be 
reckoned  as  belonging  to  the  German. 

Authorities  differ  considerably  as  to  the  number  of  per- 
sons whose  native  speech  is  German.  Meyer's  Lexicon 
gives  the  number  of  Germans  in  the  empire  as  42,000,000, 
and  a  recent  writer  in  the  London  Times,  as  47,000,000. 
Hovelacque  estimates  those  in  Austria  at  9,000,000,  and 
in  Switzerland  at  2,000,000.  Morfill  puts  the  number  of 
Germans  in  the  Russian  empire  at  about  1,240,000,  and 
Meyer- Waldeck  at  2,000,000.  The  following  table  is  be- 
lieved to  be  substantially  correct : 

Number  of  Germans  in  the  Empire     -  -        45,000,000 

Number  of  Germans  in  Austria       -  10,000,000 

Number  of  Germans  in  Switzerland    -  -          1,800,000 

'  Number  of  Germans  in  Russia         -.--.,-      1,500,000 

Number  of  Germans  in  France     -  1 50,000 

Number  of  Germans  in  Holland      -        -  -         100,000 

Number  of  Germans  in  Italy    -    -        -  -              30,000 

'  Number  of  Germans  in  all  other  lands    -  -         100,000 


Total          -        -        -        -        -        -        -        58,680,000 

The  Allgemeine  Erdkunde,  published  by  Tempsky,  in 
Prague,  says  that  Europe  contains  one  hundred  and  five 
millions  of  people  belonging  to  the  Germanic  race ; 
ninety-eight  belonging  to  the  Romanic ;  ninety-six  be- 
longing to  the  Slavic;  and  three  millions  belonging  to 
other  Indo-European  races.  About  thirty  millions  are  not 
of  Indo-European  stock. 


A  History  of  the  German  Language  29 

The  census  of  the  United  States  for  1880  shows  that 
there  were  in  this  country  at  that  date  about  two  million 
persons  who  were  natives  of  the  German  Empire.  The 
number  of  persons  whose  father  or  mother  was  a  native 
German  was  considerably  larger.  These  should  be  added 
to  the  table  given  above. 

If  we  wish  to  examine  the  beginnings  of  the  Geiman 
language  and  to  trace  its  historical  development  from  its 
inception  it  will  not  suffice  to  confine  ourselves  within  the 
limits  above  prescribed.  Our  first  and  introductory  chap- 
ter will  take  us  far  beyond  these.  It  will  be  necessary  to 
consider  the  language  in  its  remoUst  discoverable  rela- 
tionships. 


PRE-GERMANIC    PERIOD — SHIFTING    OF    SOUNDS    AND 
ACCENT. 

The  different  members  of  the  German  family  are  only  a 
fragment  of  a  larger  whole  ;  they  are  a  portion  of  the  great 
Germanic  stock  to  which  belong,  among  the  nations  of 
our  time,  the  English  and  the  Scandinavians.  The  sepa- 
ration of  the  Germans  proper  from  their  remaining  kins- 
folk, necessarily  brought  with  it  a  change  in  their  lan- 
guage. If,  therefore,  there  is  an  agreement  on  any  point 
in  the  structure  of  the  German  and  Scandinavian  lan- 
guages, it  may  in  most  cases  be  assumed  with  confidence 
that  it  takes  us  back  to  a  period  anterior  to  that  separa- 
tion. A  comparative  study  of  the  different  Germanic  dia- 
lects enables  us  then  to  form  a  pretty  correct  idea  of  the  lan- 
guage used  by  all  the  Germanic  tribes  in  common.  This 
language  is  called  the  General  Germanic  or  Primitive 
Teutonic  speech. 

But  the  science  of  language  enables  us  to  do  more.  By 
it  we  are  placed  in  position  to  prove  that  just  as  the 
English  and  Scandinavians  are  related  to  the  Germans  in 
a  certain  degree  of  kinship,  so  the  latter  are  in  turn 


30  A  History  of  the  German  Language 

related,  but  more  remotely,  to  a  larger  circle  of  people  of 
the  same  blood.  This  larger  circle  embraces  the  natives 
of  India,  of  Iran,  of  Armenia,  as  well  as  the  Greeks,  the 
Italians,  whose  chief  representatives  were  the  ancient 
Romans,  the  Kelts,  the  Slavs  and  the  Lithuanians.  All 
these  formed,  at  one  time  in  the  far  distant  past,  a  homo- 
geneous nation,  and  spoke  a  common  language,  now  gen- 
erally known  as  the  Indo-Germanic  The  people  them- 
selves are  called  Indo-Europeans  or  Aryans.  It  is  possi- 
ble to  form  a  fairly  definite  idea  of  this  language  by  a  com- 
parison of  the  various  languages  that  are  descended  from 
it.  No  amount  of  research  can  take  us  further  back  than 
this  point.  The  attempt  has  been  made  by  several  differ- 
ent scholars  to  show  that  ultimately  a  relationship  existed 
also  between  the  Indo-European  and  Semitic  languages, 
the  best  known  of  which  is  the  Hebrew,  and  the  most  im- 
portant, the  Arabic,  but  the  results  of  their  labors  have 
convinced  few  competent  scholars. 

See,  for  instance,  Andreas  Raabe,  Gemeinschaftliche  Grammatik 
der  arischen  und  der  semitischen  Sprachen,  Leipzig,  1874;  Delitzsch 
Studien  ueber  Indogermanisch-Semitische  Wurzelverwandschaft, 
Leipzig,  1873 ;  and  von  Raumer,  DIP  Urverwandschaft  der  semiti- 
schen und  der  ariscben  Spracheu,  in  Kuhn's  Zeitscbrift,  Band  XXII. 
More  accessible  are  tbe  articles  Philology  and  Shemitic  Languages  in 
McClintock  and  Strong's  Cyclopedia.  They  are  written  by  different 
authors  and  maintain  radically  different  views.  The  belief  seems  to 
be  gaining  ground  that  all  languages  are  descended  from  one  parent 
speech,  though  it  is  at  present  held  for  anthropological  rather  than 
linguistic  reasons. 

But  if  it  is  as  yet  impossible  for  the  most  thorough  in- 
vestigation to  penetrate  beyond  the  point  above  indicated, 
this  does  not  prove  or  even  make  it  probable  that  the 
Indo-European  bore  a  close  resemblance  to  the  primitive 
human  speech.  It  was,  on  the  contrary,  a  highly  devel- 
oped language  that  postulates  a  long  period  of  formation 
and  development,  and,  so  far  as  structure  is  concerned, 
there  is  no  radical  difference  between  Indo-European  (or 
Indo-Germanic)  and  Germanic.  The  former  had  about 


A  History  of  the  German  Language  31 

the  same  and  an  equal  number  of  sounds  as  the  latter;  in 
richness  of  grammatical  forms  it  was  superior.  In  the 
structure  of  the  complete  sentence  it  was,  however,  in- 
ferior, though  it  already  exhibits  the  principle  of  subordi- 
nating one  sentence  to  another  by  means  of  conjunctions. 
The  following  pages  set  forth  the  most  important 
sounds  of  the  Indo-European  tongue,  together  with  the 
specific  terms  used  to  designate  them.  It  is  customary  to 
divide  them  into  vowels  and  consonants.  The  vowels 
were: 

Simole/*'  e'  *'  °»  "'  short 
mPle\a,  e,   i,  6,   u,    long. 

Compound  (or  diphthongs)  ai,  au,  ei,  eu. 

Until  a  few  years  ago,  philologists,  almost  without  exception,  held 
to  the  opinion  that  the  vowel  system  of  the  Indo-European  had  but 
three  sounds,  namely,  a,  i,  u.  Herein  they  followed  such  leaders  as 
Grimm,  Schleicher,  and  Curtius.  The  investigations  of  the  so-called 
"  Junggrammatiktr"  (ueo-grammarians)  have,  however,  caused  this 
view  to  be  generally  abandoned  by  ah1  except  those  whose  long  ser- 
vice in  defense  of  the  old  theory  has  made  it  morally  impossible  for 
them  to  adjust  themselves  to  the  newest  discoveries. 

The  consonants  are  divided  into  sonants  (voiced)  and 
surds  (voiceless).  Of  the  former  class  the  Indo-European 
possessed  the  semi-vowels  j  (English  y)  and  w,  the  liquids 
r  and  1,  and  the  nasals  m  and  n  ;  of  the  latter  there  were 
two  classes : 

(a)  Simple  and  momentary,  because  they  did  not  ad- 

mit of  lengthening  ; 

(b)  Continuative,  or  enduring. 

The  momentary  or  explosive  consonants  are  further 
sub-divided  into  gutturals,  k  and  g ;  labials,  p  and  b ;  and 
dentals,  t  and  d  ;  or  into  tenues  k,  t,  p ;  and  medials,  g, 
b,  d. 

The  continuative  consonants,  or  those  that  may  be  in- 
definitely prolonged,  sometimes  called  fricatives  or  spir- 
ants, are  chiefly  represented  by  s. 


32  A  History  of  the  German  Language 

The  compound  consonants  are  combinations  of  the 
media  with  the  letter  h,  thus  forming  gh,  dh,  and  bh. 

These  two  letters  were,  however,  sounded  separately, 
somewhat  as  in  log-house,  god-head,  etc. 

At  a  time,  which  cannot  now  be  determined,  the  Ger- 
manic language  separated  from  the  primitive  Indo- 
European  tongue — in  other  words  changes  began  to  take 
place  in  one  part  of  this  tongue,  from  which  the  remain- 
ing portion  continued  free.  When  we  examine  the  list  of 
words  which  the  Germanic  has  in  common  with  the  Greek 
and  Latin,  we  notice  that  the  vowels  and  sonant  con- 
sonants are,  in  the  main,  the  same  in  all  three,  but  that  the 
surds,  except  s,  have,  in  all  cases,  undergone  a  change  ; 
however,  with  such  regularity  and  consistency  that  we 
commonly  find  a  certain  consonant  in  Greek  and  Latin 
represented  by  a  certain  other  consonant  in  the  Germanic. 
This  phenomenon  of  sound-shifting  is  usually  called 
Grimm's  Law,  for  the  reason  that  Jacob  Grimm,  acting  on 
a  suggestion  of  the  Danish  philologist  Rask,  first  clearly 
stated  the  conditions  under  which  it  takes  place  This 
law,  however,  expresses  only  the  first  of  two  similar 
changes  that  took  place  during  the  life  of  the  Germanic 
language.  The  facts  may  be  ranged  under  three  general 
heads  : 

(1)  The  tenuis  of  the  Indo-European,  which  is  repre- 
sented for  us  by  the  Greek  and  Latin,  becomes  a  spirant 
(fricative)  in  the  Germanic.  It  is  necessary  to  make  a  dis- 
tinction here  which  could  fitly  be  omitted  in  describing 
the  sounds  of  the  Indo-European.  Just  as  there  are  surd 
and  sonant,  or  voiceless  and  voiced — momentary-conso- 
nants, so  there  are  likewise  surd  and  sonant  fricatives. 
Now,  the  spirant  that  represents  the  Indo-European  tenuis 
is  voiceless.  It  is  also  to  be  remarked  that  the  guttural 
spirant  is  represented  in  the  Germanic  by  h.  Accordingly 
k  becomes  h,  p  becomes  f,  and  t  becomes  th,  pronounced 
as  in  "third."  The  following  words  illustrate  this  law: 


A  History  of  the  German  Language 


33: 


icepas 

KVV09 
KWTTT) 


PRIMITIVE   INITIAL  K-SOUNDS  BECOME  H. 

LATIN.  GERMAN.  ENGLISH. 

cord-is  Herz  heart 

cornu  Horn  horn 

canis  Hund  hound 

capulum  Heft  haft 

PRIMITIVE   INITIAL  P-SOUNDS  BECOME   F. 

LATIN.  GERMAN.  ENGLISH. 


7T€T-0/Aat 


pater 

Vater  (fater) 

father 

penna  (petua) 

Feder 

feather 

pluit 

flieszen 

fleet 

Flotte 

float 

PRIMITIVE   MEDIAL   T   BECOMES  TH. 

LATIN.  GERMAN. 


(jtpdrrjp 


frater 
mater 
pater 


Bruder  (bruodar)  bro-ther 
Mutter  (muotar)  mo-ther 
Vater  (fatar)  fa-ther 


NOTE.  -  These  three  examples  are  given  because  they  illustrate  the- 
phonetic  law  in  a  general  way,  though  they  do  not  all  strictly  be- 
long to  the  same  category.  See  also  page  51. 

These  lists  might  be  considerably  extended,  and  the 
student  will  do  well  to  search  for  other  examples.  It 
needs  to  be  kept  in  mind  that  the  object  here  is  to  give 
equivalents  in  form,  as  far  as  possible,  though  not  in 
meaning  ;  for  the  farther  we  go  from  the  parent  speech 
the  more  widely  do  the  significations  of  words  generally 
part  asunder.  The  four  words  for  "father"  and 
"mother"  have  precisely  the  same  meaning  in  the  four 
languages  above  given,  but  the  Greek  (j>pa.TT)p  is  not  the 
same  in  sense  with  the  other  words  placed  opposite.  So 
"  canis  "  and  "  Hund  ''  mean  the  same  thing,  but  the 
meaning  of  "  hound  "  is  more  restricted.  The  words 
placed  with  TTCT-  and  TrAe-  or  TA.O-,  are  all  related  both  in  form 
and  signification,  but  the  minor  differences  are  important- 
It  will  be  noticed  that  the  English  often  bears  a  closer  re- 


34  A  History  of  the  German  Language 

semblance  to  the  primitive  Germanic  than  the  modern 
German. 

(2)  The  law,%stated  in  its  most  general  terms,  is  that 
the  Indo-European  aspirates  appear  as  medise  in  the  Ger- 
manic. We  need  to  remember,  then,  that  the  primitive 
gh,  dh,  and  bh  correspond  to  the  Greek  x,  #  and  <£,  and  to 
the  Latin  h,  f  and  f.  We  thus  get : 

PRIMITIVE   INITIAL,    GH   BECOMES   G. 

GREEK.  LATIN.  GERMAN.  ENGLISH. 

hortus  Garten  garden 

(h)anser  Gans  goose 

INITIAL  DH   BECOMES   D. 

GREEK.  LATIN.  GERMAN.  ENGLISH. 

Ovpa  fores  Thiire,  Thor          door 

6vya.T-i)p  Tochter  daughter 

6r)p6<s  ferus  Tier  deer 

INITIAL   BH   BECOMES   B. 

GREEK.  LATIN.  GBRMAN.  ENGLISH. 

fero  ge(baren)  bear 

fagus  Bucbe  bucl!' wbeat) 

<f)paK-  farcio(frac-)  Burg  burg,  bury 

We  saw  above  that  the  Greek  word  for  "brother  "  is  not 
-derived  from  the  same  root  with  the  Latin  and  Germanic, 
but  from  one  entirely  different,  as  is  evident  from  the 
word  dSeA<£d?.  We  notice  a  similar  omission  in  the  Latin, 
where  the  place  of  the  missing  word  for  daughter  has  been 
taken  by  ''  filia."  There  are  comparatively  few  words  of 
the  original  Aryan  that  have  representatives,  or  descend- 
ants, in  all  the  branches  into  which  it  subsequently  split. 

But  the  facts  do  not,  in  all  cases,  accord  with  the  law 
stated  above.  Some  dialects  have  g  only  at  the  beginning 
of  words  or  not  at  all ;  in  its  stead  they  have  a  voiced  gut- 
tural spirant.  Some  dialects  again,  especially  the  Low 
German,  do  not  have  a  labial  middle  mute  (b)  in  the  in- 
terior of  words,  but  supply  its  place  with  a  sonant  spirant, 


A  History  of  the  German  Language 


35 


a  sound  lying  between  the  German  f  and  w,  and  which 
may  be  represented  by  bh.  These  spirants  have  not  pro- 
ceeded from  mediae  ;  they  maintain  their  original  place. 
It  is  evident  that  our  second  law  is  not  of  universal  appli- 
cation. It  is  probable  that  all  the  aspirates  of  the  Indo- 
European  first  become  spirant,  and  these  afterward  in 
part  passed  into  mediae,  or  middle  mutes,  and  in  part 
have  persisted  to  the  present  time. 

(3)     The  mediae  become   tenues  (the  middle  mutes  be- 
come smooth). 

INITIAL  G   BECOMES  K. 


yews 
ye'vos 


gena 


genus 


Km  11 
kind 


INITIAL,  D   BECOMES  T. 

LATIN.  GERMAN. 


Zahre 


Suo 


lacruma 
(dacruma) 

duo  Zwei 

domao  Zahm 

PRIMITIVE    MEDIAL   B   BECOMES   P. 

LATIN.  GERMAN. 


chin 

cild  (?) 

kin 

kind 


tear 

two 
tame 


turba 


(Dorp) 
Dorf 


-thorpe 
-throp 
And,  perhaps, 

Kai/i/aj3is  cannabis  Hanf  hemp 

There  is  no  example  where  this  change  occurs  initially. 
The  syllable  -thorp  or  -thorpe  is  lound  as  an  affix  in  many  names  of 
persons  and  places,  as  Ibthorpe,  Althorpe,  Wilstrop.  In  England 
these  names  occur  chiefly  in  those  portions  where  the  Danes  made 
permanent  settlements.  The  metathesis  of  r  is  very  common  in  the 
Indo-European  languages,  and  is  often  found  in  words  that  have 
passed  from  Anglo-Saxon  into  English,  as  urnan-run,  brid  — 
bird,  etc. 

Owing  to  these  shiftings  a  marked  change  passed  over 
the  vocalization  of  the  Indo-European.  The  Germanic  no 
longer,  possesses  aspirates  ;  but  the  number  of  spirants, 
the  only  representative  of  which  was  s  in  the  primitive 
tongue  has  considerably  increased. 


36  A  History  of  the  German  Language 

These  three  sets  of  consonant  shiftings  had  no  connec- 
tion with  each  other,  and  were  not  contemporaneous.  In 
fact,  it  can  be  shown  that  the  transformation  of  media  to 
tennis  is  much  moie  recent  than  the  other  two  changes. 
Neither  is  there  any  connection  of  cause  and  effect  be- 
tween them.  It  cannot  be  said  that  the  media  shifted  to 
tenuis  because  the  aspirates  became  media  in  order  to 
avoid  the  concurrence  of  certain  sounds  ;  that  is,  in  order 
to  prevent  the  coincidence  of  the  old  sound  with  a  differ- 
ent new  one  ;  for,  to  say  nothing  of  other  causes,  such  a 
trend  toward  differentiation  which  should  operate  to  pre- 
vent the  coming  together  of  certain  sounds  and  verbal 
forms,  is  entirely  foreign  to  the  language  It  has  hitherto 
been  impossible  to  assign  any  valid  reasons  for  the  shift- 
ings  we  have  just  explained;  and  every  theory  that  has 
been  proposed  is  too  fanciful  to  merit  a  place  here. 

But  the  laws  that  we  set  forth  underlie  an  apparent  ex- 
ception. We  find  that  the  Indo-European  k,  t,  and  p  are 
represented  not  only  by  h,  th,  and  f,  but  also  by  g,  d,  and 
b.  Besides  the  correspondence  exhibited  in  (1)  above,  we 
find  also  the  following  : 


dico  zeigen 

(iu)clytus  laut  loud 

capio  hebeii  heave 

In  the  first  series  we  have  the  Latin  and  Greek  k-sound 
represented  by  the  German  g  ;  in  the  second,  the  Latin 
and  Greek  t  by  the  English  d  ;  and  in  the  third,  p  by  b. 
How  shall  these  exceptions  be  accounted  for? 

A  study  of  the  laws  of  accentuation  in  the  different  lan- 
guages furnishes  an  explanation.  We  shall  have  frequent 
occasion  to  show  that  the  accent  plays  an  important  part 
in  the  fortunes  of  words.  Now,  the  Indo-European  ac- 
cent and  the  Germanic  are  not  the  same;  that  is,  the  orig- 
inal accent  was  not  persistent.  The  Germanic  tongues 
now  place  the  chief  stress  on  the  same  syllable,  both  in 


A  History  of  the  German  Language  37 

radical  and  derivative  words.  In  such  words  as  Hauser, 
hauslich  and  Hauslichkeit,  the  accent  remains  on  the  word 
Haus,  from  which  they  are  derived.  So  in  English  we 
say  head,  heady,  headstrong,  headstrongness,  and  even 
interest,  interesting,  interestingly  and  disinterestedness; 
for,  though  these  words  were  not  originally  English,  there 
is  a  constant  tendency  to  naturalize  loan-words  by  bringing 
them  under  its  own  laws  of  accent.  As  a  rule,  the  first 
syllable  of  a  word  carries  the  accent.  The  case  was  other- 
wise in  the  Indo-European  where  it  shifted  from  one  sylla- 
ble to  another  in  the  same  word.  A  familiar  illustration 
is  furnished  by  the  nominatives  MTW  and  avSpes  which  be- 
come in  the  genitive  p-rjrpos  and  avSpw.  Any  syllable  may 
receive  the  accent.  This  mobility  of  the  Indo-European 
accent  continued  into  the  Germanic  period,  and  had  an 
influence  on  the  displacement  of  the  smooth  mutes.  If  it 
preceded  one  of  these  letters,  or  sounds,  which  may  be 
represented  thus  — k,  — t,  — p,  the  tenuis  was  changed 
into  a  spirant;  if  it  followed,  the  result  was  a  middle  mute 
(media).  This  law  will  be  further  exemplified  on  the  fol- 
lowing pages. 

These  laws  are  of  great  importance  because  they  enable 
us  to  distinguish  the  words  of  pure  Germanic  stock  from 
those  of  later  introduction.  Only  words  in  which 
these  consonantal  shiftings  have  taken  place  are  of  native 
origin ;  but  those  in  which  gutturals  correspond  to  gut- 
turals, labials  to  labials,  or  dentals  to  dentals,  are  not 
originally  related.  The  German  Kopf  cannot,  therefore, 
be  cognate  with  the  Latin  "  caput,"  nor  Fuchs  with 
"  fuscus. ''  It  is  true  Kammer  and  "  chamber  "  are  identical 
with  the  Latin  "  camera,"  but  this  is  not  a  word  of  German 
origin,  but  simply  borrowed  from  the  Latin.  In  like 
manner  Dom  is  the  Germanized  form  ot  the  Latin 
"  domus." 

By  means  of  Verner's  Law — as  the  law  just  given  is 
called  from  the  name  of  its  discoverer — we  are  enabled  to 


38  A  History  of  the  German  Language 

determine  the  place  of  the  accent  in  Aryan  words.  In 
those  cases  where  an  Indo-European  k  or  t  or  p  corre- 
sponds to  German  sonant  the  accent  must  have  followed 
these  letters  ;  where  they  are  represented  by  a  spirant  it 
preceded  them.  Or,  more  fully :  Indo-European  k,  t> 
or  p  are  sometimes  represented  by  h,  th,  or  f,  and 
sometimes  by  g,  d,  or  b.  How  the  accent  de- 
termines which  of  the  two  it  shall  be  may  be  seen 
by  the  following  examples  :  The  Latin  pater,  mater  and 
frater  all  have  the  original  medial  t ;  but  in  German  the 
words  appear  as  Vater,  Mutter  and  Bruder.  We  find, 
however,  that  the  two  former  had  in  the  pre-Teutonic 
period  the  accent  on  the  final  syllable,  while  the  latter  had 
it  on  the  first. 

The  Greek  en-rd  represents  the  original  accent.  Here 
£7T-  alone  would,  according  to  Grimm's  Law,  become  sef, 
and  we  find,  for  example,  capt-us  appear  as  haft.  But  the 
exception  above  noted  gives  us  the  O.  H.  G.  sib-un,  a 
word  that  also  has  the  Gothic  consonants,  while  regularly 
we  should  get  sif-un.  The  cases  where  h  stands  in  place 
of  the  regular  g  are  comparatively  rare. 

An  article  in  the  Eclectic  Review  for  July,  1892,  by  Max  Muller, 
reprinted  from  the  Nineteenth  Century,  and  entitled,  "  On  the 
Enormous  Antiquity  of  the  East,"  incidentally  discusses  the  effect 
of  the  shifting  accent  on  certain  English  words. 


THE   GERMANIC   AND   ITS   SUB-DIVISIONS. 

These  two  processes,  namely,  the  rotation  of  the  conso- 
nants above  given,  and  the  shifting  of  the  accent,  achieved 
the  independent  existence  of  the  primitive  Germanic 
tongue.  It  still  possessed  considerable  wealth  in  forms. 
The  verb  had  a  separate  form  for  the  passive  voice  and  the 
noun  one  to  be  used  in  answering  the  questions,  .where? 


A  History  of  the  German  Language  39" 

whence?  wherewith?  The  verb  has  also  suffered  consid- 
erable curtailment  in  its  tenses.  But  the  Germanic  verb 
exhibits  a  mode  of  expressing  time  that  is  peculiar  to 
itself;  i.  e.,  it  did  not  exist  in  the  earlier  language.  This 
is  the  so-called  weak  preterit,  klagte,  legte,  and  corres- 
ponds to  what  most  English  grammarians  call  the  regular 
verb.  In  the  structure  of  its  sentences  the  primitive 
Teutonic  used  methods  no  longer  in  use  in  the  German. 
To  express  cause  or  time  the  latter  is  obliged  to  employ  a 
subordinate  sentence ;  but  the  primitive  Germanic,  like  the 
Greek  and  Latin,  could  do  this  by  means  of  a  noun  and 
participle  :  als  der  vater  kam  was  faderi  kumondi.  In  like 
manner  where  the  modern  German  employs  als  or  denn  to 
designate  a  comparison,  the  parent  tongue  could,  like  the 
Greek  and  Latin,  make  use  of  a  case.  Niu  saiwala  mat's 
ist  fodeinai  jah  leik  wastjom  ?  Matt.  vi.  25.  Here  ''than 
food"  and  "than  raiment"  (garments),  is  expressed  by 
nouns  in  the  dative  case. 

The  Germans  and  the  primitive  Germanic  language 
first  broke  up  into  three  grand  divisions,  each  embracing 
three  groups  of  tribes  whose  members  were  more  closely 
related  to  those  within  than  to  those  without.  The  first 
is  called  the  Gothic,  the  second  the  Scandinavian.  These 
two  probably  resemble  each  other  more  closely  than  either 
resembles  the  third  group.  They  are  usually  called  the 
East  Germanic,  and  the  third  group  the  West  Germanic. 
It  is  reasonable  to  suppose  that  the  last  named,  though 
still  constituting  a  homogeneous  people,  separated  from 
the  main  s'ock  some  time  before  it  split  into  two 
branches. 

The  first  appearance  of  the  ancient  Goths  on  the  stage 
of  history  is  a  brilliant  episode  in  the  national  life  of  the 
Germans.  In  the  plentitude  of  their  native  power  they 
founded  a  monarchy  on  Roman  territory.  Not  long,  how- 
ever, were  they  able  to  resist  the  seductive  influences  of 
Roman  civilization.  Rome  yielded  to  the  superior  cul- 


-40  A  History  of  the  German  Language 

ture  of  Greece,  though  her  all-conquering  arms  and  invin- 
cible valor  easily  destroyed  her  political  independence. 
So  the  Germans  all  along  the  line  of  contact  were  in  their 
turn  subdued  by  Roman  arts  and  Roman  letters.  The 
language  of  the  Goths  fell  into  decay ;  though  doubtless  a 
considerable  portion  of  its  vocabulary  passed  into  Italian, 
Spanish  and  Portuguese,  where  it  is  still  preserved.  The 
syntax  of  these  languages  likewise  bears  traces  of  Ger- 
manic influence.  But  no  written  memorials  exist  from 
which  we  may  learn  the  language  in  which  Gelimer  sang 
the  sorrows  of  captivity  ;  we  know  next  to  nothing  of  the 
speech  of  the  Gepidae  and  the  Bastarnse  ;  nor  have  the 
Ostro-Goths  left  us  any  written  memorials  of  their  exis- 
tence. Of  the  Visi-Goths — the  branch  that  once  dwelt  in 
the  Balkan  peninsula — we  possess  somewhat  extended 
literary  monuments  in  their  own  tongue.  These  are  the 
oldest  existing  remnants  of  any  Germanic  language.  They 
comprise  fragments  of  a  translation  of  the  Bible  made  for 
the  most  part  by  Wulfila  or  Ulfilas,  the  first  bishop  of  the 
Goths,  about  A.  D.  350. 

This  translation,  while  to  some  extent  under  the  influ- 
ence of  the  Greek  and  Latin,  from  which  it  was  made, 
furnishes  a  fair  sample  of  the  language  of  the  Goths.  In 
its  sounds  it  does  not  differ  materially  from  the  primitive 
Teutonic  type,  and  affords  us  in  the  main  a  true  picture 
of  the  same.  In  richness  of  etymological  forms,  it  has, 
however,  suffered  some  losses,  and  is  somewhat  less  prim- 
itive in  certain  regards  than  the  West  Germanic  dialects 
that  have  come  down  to  us  from  a  much  later  period. 

Speaking  accurately,  the  extant  remains  of  Gothic  literature  com- 
prise the  larger  portion  of  the  four  Gospels,  Paul's  Letters  to  the 
Romans,  Corinthians,  Ephesiaus,  Galatians,  Philippians,  Colossians, 
Thessalonians,  to  Timothy,  Titus  and  Philemon.  There  are  a  few 
fragments  of  Ezra  and  Nehemiah,  of  a  Commentary  on  the  Gospel  of 
John,  some  charters  of  the  time  of  Theodoric  the  Great,  and  a  few 
additional  trifles.  As  an  interval  of  several  centuries  lies  between 
the  Gothic  as  we  know  it  and  any  other  German  dialect,  it  may  in- 


A  History  of  the  German  Language  41 

terest  the  reader  to  compare  a  specimen  with  modern  German.    "We 
accordingly  subjoin  a  sample  of  each  : 

Atta  unsar  thu  in  himinam,  veihuai  namo  them ;  quimai 
Voter  unser  du  in  Himmeln  geweihet  werde  Name  dein  komme 
thiudinassus  theins;  vairthai  vilja  theins,  swe  in  himina,  jah 
JTerrschaft  dein  werde  wille  dein  soivie  in  Himmel,  aneh 
ana  airthai ;  hlaif  unsarana  thana  sinteinan  gif  uns  himma 
auf  Erden  Brod  unseres  dies  fortwahrende  gieb  uns  diesen 
daga,  jah  aflet  uns  thatei  skulans  sijaima  svasve  jah  veis 
Tag  und  erlasse  uns  das  Schuldige  wir  seien  soutie  auch  wir 
afletam  thaim  skulam  unsaraim ;  jah  ni  briggais  uns  in 
erlassen  diesen  Schuldigen  unseren  und  mcht  bringest  uns  in 
fraistubnyai,  ak  lausei  uns  of  thamma  ubilin ;  unte  theina  ist 
Versuchung  sondern  lose  uns  ab  diesem  Uebel  denn  dein  ist 
thiudangardi  jah  mahts  jah  vulthus  in  aivins.  Amen. 
Herrscherhaus  und  Macht  und  Glauz  in  Ewigkeit.  Amen. 

"  The  remnants  of  the  Gothic  consist  of  about  3,000  native  words; 
of  which,  however,  a  large  majority  are  compounded  out  of  a  com- 
paratively small  number  of  simpler  words.  Some  of  the  simpler 
words  are  not  preserved  ;  but  their  existence  in  the  time  of  Ulfilas  or 
previously  is  certified  by  their  compounds.  Unfortunately  the  3,000 
and  odd  words  are  but  a  fraction  of  the  whole  Gothic  vocabulary. 
Of  the  language  of  native  song  and  saga,  of  war  and  sport,  of  political, 
social,  and  family  life,  of  the  older  national  religion,  of  commerce, 
agriculture,  and  other  arts ;  and  of  the  terminology  of  natural  ob- 
jects, celestial  and  terrestrial,  animal,  vegetable,  and  mineral ;  either 
very  scanty  specimens  or  none  at  all  are  preserved.  This  loss  is  the 
jaore  to  be  regretted  because  Ulfilas  shows,  in  the  treatment  of  alien 
subjects  and  events,  not  only  ease  and  elegance,  but  sometimes  an 
exuberance  and  sometimes  a  precision  and  refinement  of  expression 
that  even  surpass  his  model."  Douse,  An  Introduction  to  the  Gothic 
of  Ulfilas.  London,  1886. 

Only  a  small  fragment  of  the  Goths  preserved  a  separate 
existence  until  comparatively  recent  times.  These  dwelt 
in  the  Crimea  where  they  were  visited  in  the  sixteenth 
century  by  a  Belgian  physician  named  Busbecq,  who  has 
left  some  record  of  their  language,  and  a  list  of  words 
which  he  heard,  in  Constantinople. 

We  do  not  have  the  Scandinavian  or  Norse  in  its  unified 
form,  but  only  in  the  various  languages  into  which  it  sub- 
sequently broke  up  ;  from  these,  however,  it  is  possible  to 


42  A  History  of  the  German  Language 

construct  the-  original.  It  embraces  the  Swedish,  the 
Norwegian,  the  Danish  and  the  Icelandic.  There  are  no 
manuscripts  in  these  languages  of  earlier  date  than  the 
twelfth  century.  Neither  have  we  access  to  the  third  and, 
for  us,  most  important  branch  of  the  Germanic  languages 
in  its  primitive  unity.  We  have  no  means  of -knowing 
when  the  Visi-Goths  separated  from  their  brethren,  nor 
where  this  separation  took  place.  Neither  is  it  possible  to 
ascertain  the  extent  of  territory  covered  by  the  various 
languages  during  the  first  centuries  of  our  era  before  the 
time  when  the  literary  monuments  begin.  In  that  proto- 
historic  period  the  Germanic  tribes  were  a  mass  that  was 
almost  constantly  in  motion. 

Ancient  tribes  and  tribal  names  disappear;  new  confed- 
eracies and  new  names  appear  on  the  pages  of  history.  It 
is  not  until  the  sixth  century,  or  about  the  time  when  the 
conquest  of  Britain  was  achieved,  that  the  shifting  masses 
become  to  some  extent  stationary.  At  this  period  the 
West  Germanic  tribes  embraced  the  following  sub-divi- 
sions as  nearly  as  can  now  be  made  out :  The  Lombards, 
the  Bavarians,  the  Alemanians,  the  Burgundians,  the 
Franks,  the  Hessians,  the  Thuringians,  the  Angles,  the 
Saxons,  the  Jutes,  and  the  Frisians.  The  German 
tongue  anciently  extended  over  a  larger  territory  than  at 
present.  It  included  Great  Britain  about  as  far  north  as 
the  river  Clyde,  while  in  the  west  and  south  of  the 
European  continent  it  was  bounded  by  the  Atlantic  ocean 
and  the  Pyrenees.  Its  southern  limit  was  the  summit  of 
the  Alps.  It  must  be  remembered,  however,  that  the 
German  occupation  of  much  of  this  territory  was  not  ex- 
clusive. It  was  still  settled  by  other  nationalities,  chiefly 
Kelts,  over  whom  they  had  gained  the  supremacy  by 
conquest.  On  the  other  hand  its  eastern  boundary  was 
considerably  farther  westward  than  it  now  is.  Here  the 
Elbe  was  the  limit,  and  the  country  lying  east  of  this  river 
was  settled  by  Slavs. 


A  History  of  the  German  Language  43 

If  we  had  documents  written  in  the  dialects  of  the 
various  tribes  above  named,  dating  from  the  fourth  or  fifth 
century,  they  would,  in  all  probability,  exhibit  but  slight 
divergencies  from  each  other  and  from  the  Gothic. 

The  main  difference  between  the  Gothic  and  the  Scandi- 
navian on  the  one  hand,  and  the  West  Germanic  on  the 
other,  lies  in  the  inflection  of  the  verb.  In  the  former  the 
second  person  of  the  singular  number  of  the  preterit  of  the 
strong  verb  ends  in  t.  For  example,  namt  (du  nahmst), 
gaft  (du  gabst)=(ihou  gavest).  In  the  West  Germanic 
tongues  the  equivalent  forms  end  in  i,  as  namz\  gdbi. 

But  at  the  period  from  which  we  possess  MSS.  written  in 
the  West  Germanic,  or  at  least  a  number  of  verbal  forms,  the 
various  branches  of  the  original  tongue  diverge  considerably 
from  each  other,  and  likewise  from  the  Gothic  ;  and  these 
divergencies  kept  getting  wider.  The  Germanic  language 
of  Britain  has  gone  farthest  from  the  primitive  type. 
This  is  the  speech  of  the  Angles,  Saxons  and  Jutes,  gen- 
erally known  as  the  Anglo-Saxon,  but  which  is  also  called 
*'  English  :'  by  those  who  insist  that  the  language  of  Eng- 
land has  remained  substantially  unchanged  since  the  con- 
quest of  Hengist  and  Horsa.  This  difference  was  caused 
partly  by  the  insular  position  of  Britain  and  partly  by  the 
subsequent  fate  of  its  inhabitants.  The  Norman  conquest 
tinged  the  vocabulary  of  the  natives  with  a  considerable 
admixture  of  Romanic  words ;  besides  which  the  frequent 
irruptions  of  the  Danes,  and  their  subsequent  temporary 
occupation  of  the  island,  were  doubtless  not  without  their 
effect  on  the  language. 

The  English,  however,  does  not  further  concern  us  here  ; 
nor  does  the  Frisian,  a  language,  or  rather  a  dialect,  still 
spoken  on  the  islands  and  along  the  coast  of  the  North 
Sea.  It  differs  considerably  from  the  other  Germanic 
dialects  of  the  continent.  There  remain,  therefore,  for 
our  further  consideration  :  the  Lombards,  the  Bavarians, 
the  Alemanians,  the  Burgundians,  the  Franks,  the 


44  A  History  of  the  German  Language 

Hessians,  the  Thuringians,  and  those  of  the  Saxons  and 
Angles  who  remained  behind  when  their  fellow-tribes- 
men crossed  over  into  Britain.  The  history  of  the  Ger- 
man language  naturally  falls  into  three  great  epochs  or 
periods,  an  older,  a  middle,  and  a  modern. 


THE   OLD   HIGH   GERMAN   PERIOD. 

This  period  closes  about  the  year  1100  ;  but  the  reader 
should  remember  that  in  a  matter  so  largely  subject  to 
the  laws  of  growth  and  decay  as  language,  to  assign  defi- 
nite dates  that  are  of  much  value,  is  impossible.  The  be- 
ginning of  this  period  is  not  coincident  with  any  particu- 
lar year.  We  can  hardly  say  more  than  that  it  may  be 
put  about  the  time  when  credible  history  begins,  and  is  in 
the  main  coeval  with  the  epoch  from  which  the  earliest 
contemporary  literary  and  historical  documents  have  come 
down  to  us.  These  documents  are,  however,  by  no  means 
entitled  to  the  epithet  "  literary,"  in  the  proper  sense  of 
that  term ;  often  they  do  not  even  consist  of  connected 
discourse.  The  oldest  German  poetry,  like  that  of  all  other 
nations,  had  its  life  in  oral  tradition  ;  and,  if  now  and  then,. 
a  fragment  was  written  down,  it  would  have  been  little 
short  of  a  miracle  if  it  had  survived  the  hostility  of  the 
clergy  to  the  national  songs  and  sagas  and  the  reminiscences 
of  heathendom  which  they  perpetuated.  The  language 
of  science  and  learning,  of  public  intercourse,  of  law,  was 
the  Latin,  and  continued  to  be  for  several  centuries  longer. 
It  is  true,  Charles  the  Great  (Charlemagne)  made  earnest 
efforts  to  place  his  mother- tongue  in  honor.  He  gave 
German  names  .to  the  months,  caused  a  German  Grammar 
to  be  compiled,  and  took  great  pains  to  collect  from  Ger- 
man minstrels  the  ancient  heroic  songs  of  his  country- 
men. But  his  son  Lewis,  who  was  wholly  under  the  in- 
fluence of  the  priests,  was  zealous  in  undoing  the  work  of 


A  History  of  the  German  Language  45 

Tiis  father.  The  Latin  has,  however,  preserved  a  quantity 
of  material  that  is  valuable  for  the  history  of  the  German 
language  ;  this  is  especially  true  of  the  records  and  title- 
deeds  pertaining  to  persons  and  places  within  the  German 
territory.  These  documents  contain  a  large  number  of 
German  words  ;  chiefly  proper  names,  it  is  true,  furnished 
with  Latin  terminations.  By  a  judicious  use  of  this 
material  we  are  enabled  to  some  extent  to  recover  the 
native  pronunciation  and  the  inflection  of  the  substantive, 
-and  to  get  some  idea  of  German  word-formation.  But  its 
greatest  value  is  historical  because  of  the  dates  and  names 
of  places  given.  Many  of  the  words  in  these  Latin  parch- 
ments are  accompanied  with  glosses,  that  is,  translations 
of  single  Latin  words  for  pedagogical  purposes.  These 
are  either  written  over  the  words  in  the  text  which  they 
are  designed  to  elucidate,  where  they  are  called  interlinear 
glosses,  or  are  brought  together  into  little  lexicons  or 
glossaries.  With  the  age  of  Charles  the  Great  connected 
and  continuous  records  begin.  They  consist  chiefly  of 
translations  of  biblical  and  ecclesiastical  works,  a  number 
of  Christian  hymns,  and  some  meager  remnants  of  popular 
poetry.  This  literature,  if  we  choose  to  call  it  by  so  dig- 
nified a  name,  is  by  no  means  equally  distributed  among 
the  various  Germanic  tribes.  The  Angles  have  no  share 
at  all  in  it,  and  of  their  dialect  6nly  a  few  words  of  uncer- 
tain authenticity  now  remain ;  neither  have  the  Hessians, 
nor  the  Thuringians,  nor  the  Lombards,  nor  the  Burgun- 
dians.  The  Saxon  portion  is  small ;  still  less  that  of  the 
Franks  along  the  lower  Rhine.  The  largest  portion  falls 
to  the  rest  of  the  Franks,  the  Bavarians,  and  Alemanians, 
or  territorially  to  the  country  along  the  Rhine  from  Con- 
stance to  the  Moselle,"  and  about  the  head-waters  of  the 
Danube.  This  is  the  section  of  Germany  in  which  Chris- 
tianity first  gained  a  firm  foot-hold. 

There  is  a  special  reason  for  the  absence  of  records  in 
the  language  of  the  Lombards  and  the  Burgundians.     At 


46 

the  beginning  of  the  period  that  here  concerns  us  the  ter- 
ritory embraced  by  the  Germanic  tongues  had  been  con- 
siderably curtailed.  The  fate  that  overtook  the  Goths  on 
Roman  soil  was  shared  by  the  Burgundians,  the  Lom- 
bards and  the  Western  Franks  ;  their  language  was  dis- 
placed by  the  Latin  and  its  descendants.  Still,  these  lan- 
guages did  not  remain  free  from  Teutonic  influence,  least 
of  all,  the  French.  Many  French  military  terms  are  de- 
rived from  the  German,  and  also  words  relating  to  feudal- 
ism and  law.  The  French  word  la  guerre  is  itself  of  Ger- 
manic origin,  and  related  to  wirren,  the  O.  H.  G.  being 
werra.  Strangely  enough  in  this  case  the  English  word 
"  war  "  clearly  bears  the  family  traits,  while  the  modern 
German  has  displaced  it  by  Krteg,  a  vocable  of  obscure  an- 
cestry. »  The  gender  of  an  entire  class  of  French  words — 
those  ending  in  eur,  such  as  "  la  fureur,"  "  la  couleur" — 
that  would  according  to  the  rules  of  the  language  to  which 
they  belong  be  masculine,  has  been  changed  to  feminine 
by  the  influence  of  the  German. 

With  these  facts  before  us,  we  are  now  able  to  draw  the 
southern  and  western  boundary  of  the  German  language, 
The  line  begins  on  the  shores  of  the  North  Sea  near  the 
straits  of  Dover  between  Gravelines  and  Dunkirk,  runs 
southward  almost  to  the  river  Lys,  then  eastward  between 
Maestricht  and  Liege  as  far  as  the  river  Meuse,  thence 
southeastward  toward  Malmedy,  thence  southward  toward 
Longwy,  but  leaving  both  these  towns  on  the  French  side. 
From  here  it  passes  southward  as  far  as  Pfalzburg  (Phals- 
bourg),  thence  southward,  west  of  Colmar,  to  the  point  where 
the  little  river  Liitzel  crosses  the  boundary  between  the  Ger- 
man empire  and  Switzerland.  From  here  it  runs  eastward 
to  the  river  Birs,  then  follows  the  western  boundary  of  the 
Swiss  canton  of  Solothurn  (Soleure)  in  a  direct  line  to  Lake 
Biel  (Bjenne)  and  the  foot  of  Lake  Neuchatel,  thence  it 
passes  across  Lake  Murten  (Morat)  and  the  town  of  the 
same  name,  through  Freiburg,  thence  almost  directly 


A  History  of  the  German  Language  47 

south  toward  the  Matterhorn,  crossing  the  Rhone  at  Siders 
(Sierre).  From  the  Matterhorn  its  course  is  eastward  by 
Monte  Rosa,  then  northeastward  as  far  as  the  St.  Gott- 
hard,  whence  it  follows  the  northern  boundary  of  the 
Grisons,  about  as  far  as  the  town  of  Tamins,  thence  east- 
ward past  the  city  of  Chur  (Coire)  in  the  direction  of 
Klagenfurt  in  Austria.  It  will  thus  be  seen  that  the  pres- 
ent eastern  boundary  of  France  is  very  nearly  the  line 
that  for  many  centuries  separated  the  French  from  the 
German  language. 

The  internal  changes  that  took  place  in  the  language 
during  this  period  were  chiefly  confined  to  the  consonants. 
Here,  too,  a  process  of  shifting  took  place,  it  being  the  sec- 
ond of  a  similar  character.  This  is  like  the  first  in  the 
fact  that  the  transitions  took  place  independently  of  each 
other,  and  at  different  times.  In  the  case  of  the  second 
shifting  we  are  able  to  follow  its  course  and  observe  its  re- 
sults almost  step  by  step  by  means  of  contemporary  docu- 
ments still  in  existence.  The  two  shifts,  however,  differ 
in  so  far  that  the  second  affected  a  much  smaller  number 
of  consonants  than  the  first. 

The  different  parts  of  the  territory  occupied  by  the  Ger- 
man, participated  in  the  second  shift  in  a  much  more  un- 
equal degree  than  the  first.  Its  influence  was  earliest  felt 
and  is  the  most  marked  in  the  south.  The  farther  we 
come  north  the  feebler  is  the  wave-beat  of  the  movement. 
The  extreme  north  exhibits  but  faint  traces  of  it.  By  this 
fact  we  are  enabled  to  distinguish  the  various  dialects, 
each  being  marked  by  the  distance  its  characteristic  con- 
sonants have  moved  away  from  their  original  value. 

The  earliest  and  most  complete  shifting  was  that  made 
by  the  smooth  mutes  (tenues)  k,  t,  and  p.  This  began 
and  went  farthest  with  the  Germanic  t.  But  it  is  neces- 
sary to  make  a  distinction  between  initial  t  on  the  one 
hand,  and  medial  or  internal,  and  final  t  on  the  other. 
The  former  did  not  pass  into  a  simple  sound,  but  into  a 


48  A  History  of  the  German  Language 

compound  of  tennis  and  spirant,  a  so-called  affricative.  In 
old  documents  this  is  usually  indicated  by  z  which  was 
pronounced  tz  or  ts.  The  Low  German  teihn  became  zehn 
in  High  German.  Here  the  English  has  preserved  the 
original  sound  in  the  word  ten.  Medial  and  final  t  was 
changed  into  a  spirant.  But  while  the  Indo-European  t 
was  transformed  into  the  German  th  (See  ante,  p  33), 
the  new  spirant  of  the  second  shift  had  passed  into  a 
sound  which  the  MSS.  also  generally  indicate  by  z.  Its 
pronunciation  probably  bore  a  close  resemblance  to  the 
German  s,  or  rather  ss,  with  which  it  subsequently  be- 
came identical  It  is  by  this  change  of  t  to  z,  which  took 
place  about  the  year  600,  that  a  most  important  dialectic 
difference  was  marked,  namely,  that  between  Low  Ger- 
man and  High  German,  between  the  north  and  south  of 
Germany.  In  the  Low  German  it  is  retained  ;  in  the 
High  German  it  has  been  superseded  by  the  other  sound. 
Where  "  that "  or  "  dat  "  was  regularly  used  in  the  terri- 
tory of  the  former ;  where  dasz,  that  of  the  latter.  The 
philologist  Schleicher  was  in  the  habit  of  designating  the 
one  class  as  ''  dat-languages,"  and  the  latter  as  "  dasz- 
languages  ;  "  for  it  must  not  be  forgotten  that  there  were, 
as  there  still  are,  many  other  minor  divergencies  between 
them.  Generally  speaking,  the  consonants  of  the  Low 
German  underwent  few  changes,  and  we  shall  often  have 
occasion  in  the  future  to  employ  words  from  its  vocabu- 
lary as  representatives  of  the  General  Germanic. 

The  fate  of  k  like  that  of  t  depends  upon  its  position  in 
a  word.  When  initial  or  final  it  was  aspirated  throughout 
the  entire  High  German  territory  to  ch  ;  for  the  English 
"  to  speak  "  we  get  the  High  German  sprechen,  Low  Ger- 
man sprecken.  The  L.  G.  ik,  A.-S.  "  ic,'1  corresponds  to  the 
H.  G.  ich.  Only  in  one  dialect  of  the  L.  G.,  the  West  Fran- 
conian,  it  becomes  ch  when  final.  Initial  k  generally  per- 
sists over  the  whole  region,  except  in  certain  districts  be- 
longing to  the  Bavarian  and  Alemanian  where  it  has  given 
place  to  kch  and  ch. 


A  History  of  the  German  Language  49 

P  both  initial  and  medial  becomes  f  whenever  k 
changes  to  ch :  Low  German,  schap,  slapen,  Eng. 
"  sheep,"  "  sleep,"  are  equivalent  to  H.  G.  schaf, 
schlafen.  When  initial,  it  becomes  pf  in  the  Alemanian, 
Bavarian  and  part  of  the  Franconian.  The  linguistic 
province  of  the  latter  lies  along  the  river  Main  and  south 
of  its  eastern  portion.  The  dividing  line  between  the  two 
sections,  the  northern  p  and  the  southern  pf,  runs  be- 
tween Bruchsal  and  Heidelberg,  so  far  as  it  lies  in  Baden. 
In  respect  to  the  dialects  of  middle  Germany,  which  we 
shall  consider  more  at  length  further  on,  it  may  be  here 
remarked  incidentally,  that  pf  is  likewise  one  of  the  char- 
acteristics of  the  Thuringian,  the  Upper  Saxon  and 
the  Silesian. 

Of  spirants  the  hard  h  and  f  remain  unchanged  ;  but  th 
passed  into  d  everywhere,  even  in  the  Low  German.  For 
example,  brother  is  equivalent  to  Bruder,  in  which  case 
the  English  has  preserved  a  close  resemblance  to  the 
Gothic  brothar.  The  sonant  labial  mute  was  turned  into 
an  explosive  (the  same  sound  it  already  had  as  an  initial 
letter)  in  the  Alemanian,  the  Bavarian  and  some  of  the 
other  High  German  dialects.  Here  it  was  the  same 
sound  that  had  already  taken  its  place  initially.  The 
transformation  of  this  labial  mute  is  of  prime  importance 
for  a  general  characterization  of  the  Germanic  dialects. 
Throughout  the  territory  occupied  by  the  Low  German, 
the  difference  between  b  and  p  was  the  same  as  in  the 
Romanic  languages ;  the  vocal  chords  were  at  rest  while 
the  sound  represenied  by  p  was  produced,  but  in  the  case 
•of  b  they  were  in  a  state  of  vibration  and  a  faint  m  was 
heard  in  connection  with  it.  In  Central  Germany  the  at- 
tendant sound  was  gradually  lost ;  as  a  result,  a  distinction 
ceased  to  be  made  between  p  and  b.  The  habit  is  still  al- 
most universal  among  the  illiterate,  and  even  the  educated 
often  unwittingly  fall  into  it.  But  still  farther  south  the 
distinction  is  again  observed ;  in  the  Alemanian  and 


50  A  History  of  the  German  Language 

Bavarian  the  b  is  pronounced  with  less  and  the  p  with 
greater  force.  This  state  of  things  prevailed  as  early  as 
the  O.  H.  G.  period.  The  effect  of  this  phonetic  change 
was  to  displace  b  as  the  representative  of  the  weaker  labial 
mute  on  High  German  territory,  though  it  remained  on 
Low,  as  it  no  longer  represented  the  Romanic  b ;  but  p 
was  used  in  its  stead.  For  example,  the  N.  H.  G.  Buck 
and  the  Eng.  "  book  ''  have  the  same  initial,  but  its  O.  H. 
G  equivalent  is  puoh.  The  late  Latin  "  bedellus  "  still 
survives  in  our  "  beadle,1'  but  its  O.  H.  G.  representative 
is  petit,  N.  H.  G.  Pedell.  Between  the  Bavarian  and 
the  "Alemanian  there  was  this  further  difference  that  the 
latter  generally  retained  initial  b  while  the  former  turned 
it  into  p  here  also. 

The  fate  of  the  soft  guttural  mute  (g)  was  similar  to 
that  just  described,  in  so  far  as  it  was  developed  out 
of  the  spirant.  In  the  districts  possessed  by  the  Low  Ger- 
man, the  distinction  between  the  Romanic  g  and  k  was 
preserved,  but  in  Middle  Germany  the  former  lost  its 
sonancy  and  then  became  virtually  identical  with  k. 
In  the  Bavarian,  Alemanian  and  the  South  Franconian 
there  is  some  difference  in  the  energy  with  which  the  two 
letters  are  uttered.  In  the  oldest  stage  of  the  two  former 
this  middle  mute  is  sometimes  written  g  and  sometimes  k. 
This  indicates  that  these  letters  were  intended  to  repre- 
sent a  sound  which  partook  of  the  nature  of  both.  In  the 
High  German  the  d  loses  its  sonancy  under  all  circum- 
stances and  is  replaced  by  t.  The  Gothic  dags  and  Eng- 
lish "  day  ''  is  tac  and  tag  in  O.  H.  G. 

These  differences  prevail  during  the  entire  further  de- 
velopment of  the  language  represented  by  the  three  stages 
pointed  out  above.  In  view  of  these  divisions  it  is  cus- 
tomary to  speak  of  Old,  Middle  and  New  Low  German, 
and  of  Old,  Middle  and  New  High  German. 

With  these  facts  before  us  we  are  now  prepared  to  see 
how  the  principle  of  consonantal  mutation  or  shifting  ap- 


A  History  of  the  German  Language  51 

pears  when  applied  to  individual  words.  This  plan  is 
preferable  to  the  mere  presentation  of  literal  equivalents. 
It  may  be  well  to  call  attention  again  to  an  important  fact 
in  the  history  of  words,  namely,  that  widely  diverse  mean- 
ings are  often  developed  from  the  same  radical  syllable. 

Indo-Ewropean  k  corresponds  to  Greek  or  Latin  k  or  c, 
Germanic  h.  Sanskrit  kalamas ;  Greek  /caAa/w/ ;  Latin 
calamus  ;  English  halm  or  haulm. 

Indo-European  t  corresponds  to  Latin  t,  Low  German 
th,  High  German  d.  Sanskrit  tarsh ;  Latin  torreo ; 
Gothic  thaursjan  ;  English  thirst ;  High  German  Durst. 

Indo-European  p  corresponds  to  Greek  or  Latin  p,  Ger- 
manic f.  Sanskrit  padas ;  Greek  Latin  *•£&-,  ped,  pod- ; 
Gothic  fotus  ;  English  foot ;  High  German  Fusz. 

Indo-European  gh  corresponds  to  Greek  Latin  g,  Ger- 
manic g.  The  primitive  form  would  probably  be  ghans, 
but  Sanskrit  hansas ;  Greek  Latin  x7?",  (h)anser ;  A.-S. 
gos ;  English  goose,  gander  ;  High  German  Cans. 

Indo-European  dh  corresponds  to  Greek  0,  Latin  f,  Low 
German  d,  High  German  t.  Hypothetical  dhur ;  Greek 
Ovpa;  Latin  fores  ;  Gothic  daur;  English  door  from  A. -S- 
duru  ;  O.  H.  G.  tor. 

Indo-European  bh  corresponds  to  Greek  4><  Latin  f, 
Low  German  b,  High  German  b  or  p.  Sanskrit  bhag  ; 
Greek  <^yo's ;  Latin  fagus ;  Gothic  boka ;  English  book, 
buckwheat  and  beech  ;  A.-S.  boc ;  O.  H.  G.  buoh  and 
puoh  ;  N.  H.  G.  Buche  and  Buch.  It  should,  however, 
be  mentioned  that  the  original  identity  of  these  two 
words  in  Teutonic  is  not  quite  certain. 


52 

Indo-European  g  corresponds  to  Germanic  k  or  ch. 
Sanskrit  gaus,  where  the  Greek  and  Latin  are  /3ovs  and 
bos;  Gothic  kos  (hypothetical);  English  cow  from  A.-S. 
cii;  O.  H.  G.  chuo;  N.  H.  G.  Kuh. 

Indo-European  d  corresponds  to  Greek-Latin  8  and  d, 
Germanic  t,  N.  H.  G.  z.  Sanskrit  da9an  ;  Greek-Latin 
Se'Kw,  decem ;  Gothic  taihun ;  English  ten,  from  A.-S. 
tyn ;  N.  H.  G.  zehn. 

Indo-European  b  corresponds  to  Latin  p,  Germanic  p, 
N.  H.  G.  p  or  pf.  Latin  pondo  ;  Gothic  pund  and  Eng- 
lish pound ;  N.  H.  G.  Pfund  ;  but  Gothic  sleps,  English 
sleep  ;  O.  H.  G.  slafan  and  slaf ;  from  which  it  will  be 
seen  that  the  mutation  of  a  consonant  at  the  end  of  a  syl- 
lable is  sometimes  different  from  that  at  the  beginning. 

Very  few  words  can  be  found  that  have  congeners  in  a 
majority  of  the  languages  of  the  Indo-European  stock. 
This  will  explain  the  gaps  in  our  series  above.  In  a  few 
instances  the  phonetic  laws  here  set  forth  are  subject  to 
slight  modifications.  These  I  have  not  thought  necessary 
to  exhibit  because  my  object  is  to  show  general  principles 
rather  than  minute  facts.  A  mute  does  not  generally  un- 
dergo the  same  transformation  at  the  beginning,  the  mid- 
dle and  end  of  a  word. 

When  philologists  speak  of  the  Indo-European  —the  Ursprache  - 
as  having  split  up  into  the  various  branches  still  represented  in  dif- 
ferent languages  of  Europe  and  Asia,  they  do  not  mean  that  this  took 
place  simultaneously.  Neither  did  the  General  Germanic  break  into 
several  linguistic  fragments.  That  phonetic  changes  always  take 
place  slowly  is  abundantly  proved  by  the  testimony  of  those  that 
have  taken  place  within  historic  times.  The  oldest  records  of  the 
Sanskrit  probably  do  not  go  further  back  than  the  sixteenth  century 
B.  C.  At  this  period  it  had  already  diverged  considerably  from  the 
primitive  stage.  Where  the  people  who  spoke  this  language  dwelt 
we  do  not  know.  Very  likely  they  were  wanderers  with  no  fixed 
place  of  abode.  Of  the  Greek  we  have  no  remains  earlier  than  the 
eleventh  or  twelfth  century  B.  C.,  while  those  of  the  Italic  dialects 


A  History  of  the  German  Language  53 

are  several  centuries  younger.  The  history  of  both  Greeks  and 
Italians  before  these  dates  rests  on  a  very  insecure  foundation.  Of 
the  Germanic  tongues,  as  we  have  seen,  there  are  but  faint  traces 
earlier  than  the  fourth  century  after  Christ.  But  we  have  occasional 
notices  of  German  tribes  in  the  fourth  century  B.  C.  These,  too,  ap- 
pear now  at  one  place,  now  at  another,  in  both  Europe  and  Asia. 
The  various  consonantal  shifts  that  play  so  important  a  part  in  the 
history  of  the  Aryan  languages  must  be  regarded  as  having  taken 
place  from  the  parent  speech,  and  not  from  auy  of  its  branches.  Yet 
it  is  possible  and  even  probable  that  this  primitive  speech  broke  up 
into  two  or  more  different  parts,  one  or  more  of  which  were  again 
further  sub-divided.  Nor  do  we  know  the  causes  of  this  differentia- 
tion. They  were  probably  climatic  and  topographical — the  result  of 
slight  changes  in  the  vocal  organs  of  the  different  people.  We  do  not 
know  when  the  Primitive  German  languages  shifted  from  the  Aryan, 
but  it  was  at  a  prehistoric  period ;  for  we  find  the  process  almost  com- 
plete in  the  earliest  Gothic  known  to  us.  The  bifurcation  of  the 
Primitive  Germanic  into  High  and  Low  German  was  much  later, 
and  took  place  in  historic  times.  It  seems  to  have  been  in  progress 
during  the  period  lying  between  the  sixth  and  the  tenth  centuries 
after  Christ.  It  began,  as  we  have  seen,  in  South  Germany  and 
moved  northward  until  its  energy  had  gradually  spent  itself  before 
it  reached  the  region  of  the  lower  Rhine.  It  could  be  proven  by  the 
testimony  of  the  German  language,  if  no  other  were  forthcoming, 
that  those  who  spoke  it  were  originally  a  homogeneous  mass  when 
they  began  their  independent  career  which  first  separated  into  two 
main  divisions.  The  minor  divergences  that  still  exist  partake  more 
or  less  of  the  chief  characteristics  of  one  or  the  other  of  these 
divisions. 

The  lines  which  bound  the  various  dialects  have  chang- 
ed but  little  from  the  earliest  times  except  that  the  L.  G. 
has  been  gradually  losing  ground  before  the  encroach- 
ments of  the  H.  G.  We  shall,  therefore,  'not  go  far  wrong 
if  we  supply  the  missing  links  in  the  older  boundaries  by 
the  linguistic  facts  gathered  from  more  recent  observa- 
tions. The  dividing  line  between  Low  and  High  German 
passes  nearly  east  and  west.  Beginning  on  the  Meuse  at 
a  point  midway  between  Liege  and  Msestricht  it  passes 
down  the  Meuse  as  far  as  Roermonde  (Ruremond)  and 
from  here  eastward  past  Diiesseldorf  to  Elberfeld.  Here 
it  turns  south  and  runs  parallel  with  the  Rhine  almost  to 


54  A  History  of  the  German  Language 

the  little  river  Sieg.  Bending  thence  to  the  northeast  it 
passes  in  an  almost  direct  course  past  Minden,  and  thence 
to  Magdeburg  on  the  Elbe.  This  line  marked  off  the  ter- 
ritory of  the  O.  L.  G.  which  embraced  the  Saxons  and  a 
portion  of  the  Franks.  Their  two  dialects  are  called  the 
Old  Saxon  and  the  Low  Franconian. 

The  boundary  between  the  Franconian  and  the  Upper 
German  in  the  valley  of  the  Rhine  is  formed  by  the  forest 
of  Hagenau  in  Northern  Alsace  and  the  lower  course  of 
the  Murg,  a  small  river  that  flows  into  the  Rhine  from  the 
southeast,  a  short  distance  from  Carlsruhe.  Following  the 
Murg  a  little  way  it  turns  nearly  east  a  little  south  of  the 
city  of  Calw  in  Wiirtemberg,  crossing  the  river  Nagold  it 
runs  northeast  as  far  as  the  Neckar,  near  Besigheim, 
thence  directly  east  to  Ellwangen.  Here  it  turns  north- 
east again  to  Feuchtwangen,  then  southeast  to  Wasser- 
trued,  whence  it  runs  off  in  the  direction  of  the  Fichtel 
mountains. 

The  dividing  line  between  the  Alemanian  and  Bavarian 
is  formed  in  the  main  by  the  rivers  Woernitz  and  Lech, 
the  one  flowing  southward,  the  other  northward  into  the 
Danube,  at  no  great  distance  from  the  city  of  Augsburg, 
though  the  Alemanian  is  also  spoken  on  the  right  bank  of 
the  Lech  in  its  upper  course. 

The  differences  between  the  dialects  were  in  earlier 
times  much  less  marked  than  at  present.  Taking  them  as 
a  whole  and  comparing  them  with  the  Gothic  on  the  one 
hand  and  the  German  as  written  to-day  on  the  other,  they 
are  found  to  be  more  closely  akin  to  the  former  than  to 
the  latter  or  N.  H.  G.  Compared  with  this  the  dissimi- 
larity is  greatest  in  the  form  of  the  individual  words.  A 
majority  of  these  now  end  in  a  monotonous  <?,  but  in  the 
olden  time  almost  any  of  the  long  or  short  vowels  might 
terminate  a  word.  The  sensuous  impression  produced  by 
the  older  language  with  its  plenitude  of  sonorous  vowels  is 
very  different  from  the  modern. 


A  History  of  the  German  Language  55 

There  is  one  other  peculiarity  to  which  it  is  proper  to 
call  attention.  A  number  of  words  that  now  begin  with  1 
were  in  the  O.  H.  G.  preceded  by  an  h.  The  modern 
Liidwig  (Lewis,  Louis),  for  instance,  was  Hhidwig.  This 
combination  of  consonants  is  not  found  in  the  Romanic 
tongues,  and  when  those  whose  native  language  was 
French  tried  to  reproduce  it  they  employed  chl.  For  this 
reason  Chlodwig  is  no  other  than  Ludwig  ;  Chlotar,  than 
I^othar. 

In  the  course  of  the  tenth  and  eleventh  centuries  the 
•German  language  gradually  assumes  a  different  character. 
The  vowels  of  the  final  syllable  that  had  been  long,  began 
to  be  shortened,  while  the  weakening  of  the  short  vowels 
to  e  becomes  more  and  more  general.  This  movement 
does  not  begin  over  the  whole  German  territory  at  the 
same  time,  and  advances  more  rapidly  in  some  parts  than 
in  others.  The  South  is,  generally  speaking,  more  con- 
servative than  the  North.  The  transformation  is  about 
completed  by  the  middle  of  the  twelfth  century.  By  this 
time  a  leading  feature  of  the  O.  H.  G.  has  accordingly 
been  obliterated,  and  the  period  of  the  M.  H.  G.  and  the 
M.  L.  G.  begins.  But  here,  too,  it  is  impossible  to  assign 
definite  dates  to  what  was  a  continuous  organic  develop- 
ment. The  Upper  German,  for  example,  conserved  some 
of  its  vowels  in  certain  positions  until  far  into  the  middle 
period. 

The  surviving  literary  monuments  of  the  O.  H.  G. 
period  are  the  following,  though  they  do  not  all  belong  to 
O.  H.  G.  dialects.  The  oldest  and  most  important  is  the 
translation  of  the  Bible  by  Ulfilas,  which  has  already  been 
spoken  of.  There  is  a  tradition  that  he  included  the 
whole  of  the  Old  and  New  Testament  in  his  work  except 
the  Book  of  Kings,  and  that  he  omitted  this  because  he 
feared  lest  its  narration  of  military  achievements  might 
tend  to  excite  the  martial  spirit  of  his  countrymen,  to 
which  they  were,  in  his  judgment,  already  too  prone. 


56  A  History  of  the  German  Language 

o 

The  history  of  the  only  existing  codex  of  Ulfllas  is  sufficiently  re- 
markable to  merit  a  brief  notice  here.  It  is  one  of  the  many  in- 
stances where  our  knowledge  of  important  facts  of  antiquity  is  wholly 
dependent  upon  the  existence  of  a  single  record,  often  imperfect,  as  in 
this  case.  Nothing  was  known  of  this  codex  until  the  sixteenth 
Century  when  it  was  discovered  in  the  Abbey  of  Werden,  a  town  not . 
far  from  Duesseldorf  in  Prussia.  It  came  into  the  possession  of  the 
emperor  Rudolf  II.  in  Prague ;  and  when  this  city  was  taken  by  the 
Swedes  in  1648,  it  was  removed  to  Stockholm.  Not  long  afterward 
it  was  transferred  to  Holland,  but  was  again  acquired  by  a  Swede, 
count  de  la  Gardie,  who  had  it  bound  in  silver,  and  subsequently 
presented  it  to  the  library  of  the  University  of  Upsala,  where  it  now 
is.  The  letters  Avith  which  the  MSS.  is  written  are  chiefly  of  silver, 
but  partly  of  gold  on  purple  colored  parchment,  whence  it  is  called 
the  codex  argenteus.  It  originally  consisted  of  330  leaves;  but  all 
except  177  have  been  lost.  A  few  fragments  of  the  same  translation 
are  in  other  European  libraries. 

All  the  extant  literature  of  the  O.  H.  G.  consists  of 
translations  and  is  consequently  of  little  value  except  for 
the  language.  A  nearly  complete  list  is  here  given.  We 
name  first,  The  Rule  of  St.  Benedict,  translated  about  780 
by  a  monk  of  St.  Gall,  and  Tatian's  Harmony  of  the  Gos- 
pels made  about  a  century  later.  A  very  important  docu- 
ment, both  linguistically  and  historically,  are  the  recipro- 
cal oaths  of  the  kings  and  people,  often  called  the  Stras- 
burg  oaths.  In  the  year  842  the  kingdom  of  the  Franks, 
was  divided  between  Lewis  the  German,  who  received 
Austrasia  (Germany),  and  Charles  the  Bald,  who  received 
Neustria  (France).  The  latter  took  an  oath  in  French, 
the  former  in  German.  TJie  old  and  the  modern  German 
are  as  follows : 

In  godes  minna  ind  in  thes  Christianes  folches  ind  unser  bedhero 
Aus  Liebe  zu  Gott  und  zu  des  Christlichen  Volkes  und  unser    beider 

ge(h)altnissi  fon,    thesemo   daze  frammordes  so  fram  so  mir    got 
Erhaltung      von      diesem    Tage       fortan       so  weit  als  mir  Gott 

gewisci  indi  mahd  furgibit,  so  haldih  tesan  (thesan)  minanbruodher, 
Wissen  und  Macht     gibt     so  halteich  diesen  meinen     Bruder 

soso     man    mit   rehtu   sinan  bruodher  seal,  in  thiu  thaz    er   mig 
sowie  man   mit   Recht  seinen  Bruder    soil,   in  dem  dasz    er    mir 


A  History  of  the  German  Language  57 

so  sania  duo ;   indi  mit  Ludheren  in  nohheiuiu  thing    ne   gegango, 
ebenso    thue ;  und  mil     Lothar     in         kein       Ding  nicht  gehe  ich, 

the    iniiiaii    willon  inio  ce  scadhen  werdhen. 
das  meinen  Willem  ihm  zu  Schaden  werde. 

This  fragment  illustrates  some  of  the  phonetic  changes 
that  have  already  been  discussed. 

A  translation  and  elucidation  of  the  Psalms  by  Notker 
Labeo,  of  the  end  of  the  tenth  century. 

A  translation  with  commentary  of  the  Song  of  Solomon 
by  Williram,  a  monk  of  Ebersberg,  made  in  the  eleventh 
century. 

The  oldest  German  poetry  extant  consists  of  fragments 
of  the  Song  of  Hildebrand.  It  is  composed  in  Low  Ger- 
man mixed  with  High  German.  Its  form  is  alliterative 
verse,  and  commemorates  the  combat  of  one  Hildebrand 
with  his  son  Hadubrand.  It  seems  to  have  been  commit- 
ted to  writing  near  the  beginning  of  the  ninth  century, 
but  it  is  evidently  a  reminiscence  of  an  earlier  age. 

Of  uncertain  date,  but  probably  belonging  to  the  be- 
ginning of  the  ninth  century,  is  another  Harmony  of  the 
Gospels  in  the  Old  Saxon,  known  as  the  Heliand.  This 
also  is  in  alliterative  form  and  in  the  opinion  of  Grimm 
represents  the  dialect  spoken  in  the  district  lying  between 
Miinster,  Essen  and  Cleves.  A  specimen  is  given  below 
chiefly  for  the  purpose  of  exhibiting  the  form  of  versifica- 
tion in  general  use  among  the  ancient  Germans : 

Tho  ward  thar  so  managumu  manne 

mod  after  Kriste 
gihuorben,  hugiskefti,  sidor  sie  is 

helagon  werk 

selbon  gisahon,  huand  eo  er  sulic  ni  ward 
wundar  on  weroldi.     Than  was  eft  thes 

werodes  so  filu, 

so    modstarke    man,  ni  weldun  the  maht  godes 
antkennien  kudliko,  ac  sie  wid  is  craft  mikil 
wunnun  mid  iro  wordun  ;  Warun  im  waltendes 
lera  so  leda. 


58  A  History  of  the  German  Language 

The  alliteration  is  not  only  plainly  marked  in  the  above 
brief  extract,  but  might  easily  be  retained  in  an  English 
translation.  In  each  line  there  are  three  or  more  princi- 
pal words  having  the  same  initial  sound.  We  may  cite 
current  words  that  have  but  slightly  or  not  all  varied  from 
the  meaning  they  had  more  than  a  thousand  years  ago : 
Many,  man,  mood,  holy,  work,  self,  saw,  so,  like,  were, 
wonder,  world,  and  numerous  others. 

Ekkehard,  a  monk  of  St.  Gall,  who  died  in  973,  when  a 
young  man  composed  a  poem  called  "  Waltharius,"  pat- 
terned after  Vergil  and  Prudentius.  It  commemorates  the 
flight  of  Walter  of  Aquitaine  and  his  beloved  Hildegunde. 
Though  written  in  Latin  it  is  valuable  for  its  reminis- 
cences of  German  heroic  poetry. 

To  the  O.  H.  G.  belongs  the  so-called  Wessobrunn 
Prayer,  the  distinctive  epithet  qf  which  is  due  to  the  fact 
that  the  MS.  was  discovered  in  the  monastery  of  Wesso- 
brunn (Weiszenbrunn)  in  Bavaria.  Though  Christian  in 
sentiment  its  form  is  distinctly  pagan,  and  it  is  the  first 
known  attempt  to  unite  the  new  and  the  old  religion  in  this 
way.  Similar  in  poetic  form,  that  is,  alliterative,  equally 
fragmentary  and  belonging  to  about  the  same  epoch — 
about  A.  D.  900 — is  another  poem  called  Muspilli.  This, 
though  a  Christian  composition,  is  pervaded  with  mytho- 
logical reminiscences.  There  is  some  reason  to  believe 
that  it  was  composed  by  King  Lewis  the  German.  The 
•only  secular  production  proper  belonging  to  this  period  is 
a  fragment  of  a  description  of  the  earth,  commonly  known 
as  Merigarto  (see-girt  garden)  of  the  eleventh  century. 
When  complete  this  poem  seems  to  have  been  very  long. 
The  extant  portion  treats  chiefly  of  the  earth  and  certain 
miraculous  fountains. 

Krist,  a  poem  composed  by  a  monk  named  Otfried, 
completed  about  868,  is  the  first  example  in  German  of 
the  use  of  rhyme.  It  embraces  five  books  or  cantos  and 
owes  its  form  probably  to  early  Latin  hymns.  The  author 


A  History  of  the  German  Language  59 

seems  to  have  been  an  Alsatian  or  a  Swabian,  and  this 
work  is  probably  the  first  attempt  of  a  German  to  con- 
struct an  artificial  epic.  There  exists  also  a  Song  of  King 
Lewis  (III.)»  the  paean  of  victory  over  the  Normans  in  881. 
Its  probable  author  was  one  Hucbald,  who  died  in  930,  and 
who  was  during  his  lifetime  a  favorite  of  Charles  the  Bald 
and  his  son  Lewis 

The  above  enumeration  includes  everything  in  the  form 
of  connected  discourse,  except  a  few  fragments  belonging 
to  the  O.  H.  G.  period.  Though  generally  included  in 
histories  of  German  literature  all  this  matter  belongs 
rather  to  a  history  of  the  German  language,  because  its 
literary  value  is  slight,  and  its  linguistic  value  inestimable. 
The  extant  remains  of  the  Anglo-Saxon  are  more  exten- 
sive than  that  of  any  other  Germanic  dialect,  and  the  lan- 
guage differs  little  from  the  Old  Saxon.  But  as  it  existed 
for  the  most  part  separate  from  the  rest,  it  may  be  left  out 
of  account  here.  It  is,  however,  true  of  both  the  conti- 
nental and  the  insular  Teutonic  that  it  was  committed  to 
writing  under  the  impulse  of  Christianity.  For  the  former, 
the  inspiration  proceeded  primarily  from  two  literary  cen- 
ters, the  school  at  Fulda  in  Germany,  and  St.  Gall  in 
Switzerland.  The  latter  monastery  was  founded  about 
600,  the  former  nearly  150  years  later. 


THE   MIDDLE    HIGH   GERMAN   PERIOD. 

The  middle  period  is  usually  designated  as  the  Middle 
High  German  from  the  dialects  that  played  the  most  im- 
portant part  during  this  time.  The  picture  which  the 
provinces  occupied  by  the  German  language  present  dur- 
ing this  period,  is  much  more  varied  than  before.  The 
causes  that  brought  about  this  greater  activity  are  various. 
In  the  first  place  those  districts  which  hitherto  have  fur- 
nished us  few  linguistic  monuments,  or  had  taken  no  part 


GO  A  History  of  the  German  Language 

at  all  in  the  literary  movements  of  the  times,  now  come 
under  observation.  This  is  true  of  the  Low  German  ter- 
ritory, and  of  the  northern  portions  of  the  High  German, 
Franconian  from  Mainz  to  Cologne,  the  Hessian  and  the 
Thuringian.  '  The  latter  dialects,  spoken  between  the 
Main  and  the  Low  German  border,  are  now  called  Middle 
German  At  the  same  time  the  whole  area  embraced  by 
the  German  language  was  a  good  deal  enlarged.  In  pro- 
portion as  the  Slavic  power  was  forced  back  by  German 
valor  and  the  conquered  land  occupied  by  German  settlers 
their  language  gained  a  firm  footing  east  of  the  Elbe. 
Saxony  and  Silesia  and,  in  part,  Bohemia  are  won  for 
the  Teutonic  tongue,  so  that  in  the  fourteenth  and  fifteenth 
centuries  German  literature  was  cultivated  to  a  consider- 
able extent  in  the  latter  country.  Brandenburg,  Mecklen- 
burg, Pomerania  and  Prussia  were  likewise  germanized. 

The  ancient  kingdom  of  Prussia  had,  however,  never 
been,  properly  speaking,  Slavic  territory,  but  was  inhab- 
ited by  German  tribes  from  the  earliest  times,  though  it 
was  not  subdued  and  Christianized  until  the  thirteenth 
century,  the  two  processes  going  hand  in  hand.  At  this 
time  the  German  outposts  toward  the  east  were  pushed 
forward  as  far  as  the  Niemen.  In  the  southeast  the  German 
language  also  greatly  extended  its  boundaries  at  the  ex- 
pense of  the  Magyar,  and  planted  a  number  of  linguistic 
oases  in  this  region. 

The  newly  acquired  lands,  nevertheless,  did  not  form  a 
continuous  and  homogenous  whole,  a  statement  that  is 
especially  true  of  the  north.  In  some  of  the  settlements 
the  Low  German  was  the  spoken  language  ;  in  others  the 
High  German.  But  the  latter  bears  traces  of  the  Middle 
German.  Saxony  and  Silesia  are  now  to  be  regarded  as 
belonging  to  Central  Germany,  and  likewise  the  lands  of 
the  Teutonic  Knights.  The 'Marches,  or  Viceroyalties, 
and  the  coast  region,  on  the  other  hand,  were  colonized  by 
Low  German  immigrants. 


A  History  of  the  German  Language  61 

But  the  German  language  gains  during  this  period  not 
only  in  extent  of  territory,  but  likewise  in  what  may  be 
called  intensity.  Until  now  its  sway  was  not  fully  acknowl- 
edged in  its  own  home  ;  in  several  departments  the  lan- 
guage used  was  exclusively  Latin.  Hitherto  prose  writ- 
ings that  were  not  translations  were  few  and  of  limited  ex- 
tent. In  the  M.  H.  G.  period  this  condition  of  things  is 
changed.  German  pulpit  oratory  receives  a  great  impetus 
through  the  zealous  labors  of  the  Mystics,  particularly 
from  about  the  middle  of  the  thirteenth  century.  The 
language  of  jurisprudence,  too,  begins  to  put  on  a 
German  garb  About  1230  a  famous  book  of  laws  known 
as  the  Sachsenspiegel  was  published.  This  Saxons' 
Looking-glass  is  a  compilation  of  observances  and  cus- 
toms to  which  immemorial  usage  had  given  the  sanction 
of  laws.  It  was  first  written  in  Latin,  a  fact  that  is  sig- 
nificant of  this  transition  period,  and  afterward  translated 
into  German  by  the  compiler,  a  nobleman  named  Eike  or 
Eko  of  Repgow.  City  archives  now  begin  to  be  kept  in 
German.  In  Switzerland  those  dating  from  the  seventh 
and  eighth  decades  of  the  thirteenth  century  are  quite 
numerous.  Their  frequency  in  Germany  proper  is  nearly 
half  a  century  later.  It  should  be  noted  that  the  writings 
of  this  period  were  called  into  existence  by  the  needs  of 
practical  life,  and  belong  in  no  sense  to  literature. 
Nevertheless,  literary  prose  is  not  wholly  lacking  for 
there  are  beginnings  of  written  history -both  in  this  form 
and  in  verse.  We  may  even  speak  of  works  of  a  scientific 
character,  if  we  include  under  this  head  the  philosophical 
and  theosophical  treatises  of  the  Mystics  that  were  written 
in  the  vernacular.  In  the  main,  however,  the  language 
of  scientific  investigation  and  discussion  is  still  the  Latin. 
The  more  general  cultivation  and  the  larger  use  of  the 
German  during  these  periods  are  not  the  outgrowth  of  a 
conscious  or  unconscious  national  impulse ;  they  are 
rather  the  result  of  slackening  interest  in  the  monasterial 


62  A  History  of  the  German  Language 

education  of  the  times, — the  effect  of  a  sort  of  torpidity 
that  gradually  creeps  over  the  civil  life  of  the  community. 

It  were  a  mistake  to  suppose  that  this  more  extensive 
use  of  the  German  language  is  a  matter  of  small  import  to 
its  inner  life.  When  any  member  of  the  human  body  is 
drawn  into  new  and  unaccustomed  activity  its  muscles 
and  sinews  are  called  into  requisition  to  an  extent  not  be- 
fore experienced  There  is  growth  and  development 
whore  there  was  little  or  none  before.  So,  too,  language 
grows  with  extended  usage  ;  every  new  task  assigned  to 
it  exercises  an  influence  upon  its  words  and  upon  the 
structure  and  arrangement  of  its  sentences.  The  more 
numerous  and  manifold  the  written  materials  belonging  to 
the  periods  under  consideration  become,  the  more  clear  and 
distinct  do  the  features  of  the  various  dialects  stand  out, 
and  the  more  definitely  are  we  able  to  trace  the  boundary 
lines  between  them. 

The  dividing  line  between  the  Middle  and  Low  German 
dialects  did  not  remain  permanently  the  same  during  the 
period  under  discussion  ;  the  latter  retreated  slowly  before 
the  former.  This  is  true  more  especially  of  the  territory 
between  the  Harz  mountains  and  the  river  Saale.  In  1300 
the  east  and  west  boundary  line  was  not  far  from  the  50th 
parallel  of  north  latitude,  passing  the  Saale  above  Merse- 
burg;  but  two  hundred  years  later  it  was,  as  it  is  to-day,  a 
good  deal  farther  north,  and  crossed  the  Saale  below  the 
mouth  of  the  Bode,  not  far  from  its  confluence  with  the  Elbe. 
The  entire  Mansfeld  district,  and  particularly  Halle,  has 
undergone  a  change  in  its  folk-speech.  The  linguistic 
character  of  the  Middle  German,  as  might  be  inferred  from 
its  geographical  position,  make  it  a  bond  of  union  no  less 
than  a  stage  of  transition  between  the  Upper  and  Lower 
German.  The  consonants  have  not  in  all  cases  shared  in 
the  High  German  rotation  of  mutes,  while  the  vowels  have 
remained  substantially  as  4n  the  Upper  German.  In  a 
large  number  of  syllables  long  vowels  in  the  Low  German 


A  History  of  the  German  Language  63 

correspond  to  diphthongs  in  the  Upper  German,  though 
less  in  the  Lower  Franconian  than  elsewhere.  We  thus 
get  the  following  scheme  : 


stein  sten  stone 

weisz  wet  wot 

zwei  twe  two 

bourn  b6m  beam 

ouch  6k 

stoup  stof 

brief  bref  brief 

fiel  fel  fell 

heisz  het  hight 

gout  god  good 

huon  hon 

truoc  drog 

In  all  cases  the  exceptions  are  confined  to  the  border 
territory.  The  Middle  German  exhibits  the  Upper  Ger- 
man sounds  in  both  vowels  and  consonants.  It  is  not  un- 
til pretty  well  along  in  our  period  that  a  tendency  becomes 
manifest  to  simplify  certain  double  sounds,  as,  for  in- 
stance, where  the  Upper  German  has  brif,  huon,  pro- 
nounced almost  like  two  syllables,  we  find  in  the  Middle 
German  such  forms  as  brty,  Hun,  etc 

We  have  some  contemporary  documents  intended  to  de- 
scribe the  salient  characteristics  of  the  different  dialects. 
One  of  these  is  in  poetic  form,  written  about  1300  by  a 
schoolmaster  of  Bamberg.  But  such  descriptions  are  of 
little  value,  even  when  an  honest  attempt  is  made  to  rep- 
resent the  living  sounds.  Speaking  generally,  and  apply- 
ing the  remark  to  other  languages  as  well  as  German,  it 
may  be  said  that  the  number  of  signs  in  common  use  is 
almost  always  and  everywhere  inadequate  to  represent  the 
sounds  in  actual  use.  A  single  sound  is  sometimes  indi- 
cated by  two  or  more  characters,  examples  of  which  are 


64  A  History  of  the  German  Language 

particularly  abundant  in  English,  while  sometimes  the 
same  character  is  pronounced  in  two  or  more  different 
ways,  as  may  be  seen  in  the  case  of  our  letter  a.  Still  it 
must  be  said  that  the  English  is  more  anomalous  than  any 
other  language,  but  it  exhibits,  though  in  excessive  de- 
gree, a  common  tendency.  The  result  is  that  we  have  a 
greater  conformity  in  written  characters  than  is  warranted 
by  the  imderlying  phonetic  facts. 

We  are  led  to  conclude  that  there  must  have  existed  a 
clearly  recognized  difference  between  the  living  speech  in- 
herited by  every  individual  and  the  language  of  our  writ- 
ten memorials.  It  would  seem  that  there  grew  up  grad- 
ually a  written  language  apart  from  the  various  dialects  in 
current  use,  in  part  as  a  medium  of  literary  intercourse, 
and  in  part  as  the  fashionable  speech  of  the  upper  classes. 
We  even  read  of  three  such  written  languages,  a  M.  H.  G. 
which  is  regarded  as  the  language  of  court  circles,  a  M.  G. 
and  a  L.  G.  The  view  that  postulates  the  existence  of  a 
L.  G.  or  M.  G.  written  tongue  is  undoubtedly  erroneous, 
and  it  is  very  questionable  whether  there  was  a  M.  H.  G. 
The  Switzer  Ulrich  of  Zazichoven  ;  the  Swabian  Hartmann 
of  Aue ;  the  Alastian  Godfrey  of  Strasburg;  the  Fran- 
conian  Wolfram  of  Eschenbach,  all  of  whom  flourished 
about  the  year  1200,  exhibit  divergencies  enough  in  their 
vocabulary  to  preclude  the  possibility  of  a  recognized 
unity  of  speech.  But  be  this  as  it  may,  many  facts 
come  to  our  notice  indicative  of  the  general  tendency  that 
the  German  mind  is  in  process  of  preparation  for  such 
a  language ;  a  mingling  of  dialects  becomes  evident,  and 
the  attempt  is  made  by  one. writer  here  and  another  there 
to  use  a  dialect  that  is  foreign  to  him,  while  the  language 
of  certain  districts  evidently  preponderates  over  that  of 
others.  The  more  actively  the  various  sections  of  Ger- 
many interest  themselves  in  fostering  poetry,  the  more 
frequent  literary  intercourse  becomes,  the  more  attention 
is  given  to  the  multiplication  of  manuscripts,  the  oftener 


A  History  of  the  German  Language  65 

it  happens  that  the  native  tongue  of  the  copyist  is  differ- 
ent from  that  of  his  copy.  As  a  result  the  MS.  he  pro- 
duces will  be  a  mixture  of  different  dialects.  The  result- 
ing text  may  in  turn  be  used  by  a  copyist  from  another 
part  of  Germany,  which  will  make  his  work  a  mixture  of 
a  still  greater  number  of  elements  Not  only  are  poems 
transported  from  place  to  place,  but  poets  also  lead  a  sort 
of  nomadic  life.  We  are  informed  that  Wolfram  of  Eschen- 
bach  spent  some  time  in  Thuringia ;  his  writings  embody 
peculiarities  that  are  foreign  to  his  native  Upper  Fran- 
conian.  The  fairest  flowers  of  German  mediaeval  poetry 
blossomed  on  H.  G.  soil.  The  political  supremacy  and 
the  literary  centers  that  attract  rising  talent  from  all  parts 
of  the  land  are  on  H.  G.  territory.  We  accordingly  find 
several  poets  who,  though  natives  of  L.  G.  districts,  never- 
theless aspire  to  the  use  of  H.  G  or  M.  G.  speech.  The 
preponderance  of  the  H.  G.  is  also  shown  by  its  encroach- 
ment upon  L.  G.  territory — a  fact  of  which  we  have  before 
spoken.  Occasional  records  in  L.  G.  that  exhibit  a  style 
of  expression  somewhat  above  the  mere  local  folk-speech 
betray  a  leaning  toward  the  M.  G.  Alongside  of  these 
main  lines  of  development  growing  out  of  the  circum- 
stances of  the  times,  certain  preferences  for  this  and  that 
dialect  manifest  themselves  that  are  merely  a  passing 
fashion.  It  was,  for  example,  good  form  at  certain  periods 
during  the  13th  century,  in  Upper  Germany  to  intersperse 
one's  speech  with  words  and  phrases  from  the  L.  G.  This 
was  called  zu  flaemen.  Ulrich  of  Lichtenstein  says 
bluomekm  instead  of  blitemelin,  and  Meyer  Helmbrecht, 
the  courtly  son  of  a  peasant  addresses  his  sister  with  vil 
Hebe  suster  kinder  kin,  susler  being  the  Lower  Frauconiau 
for  Schwester.  In  Austria,  on  the  other  hand,  it  was  re- 
garded as  an  evidence  of  good-breeding,  about  the  middle 
of  the  14th  century,  to  use  the  Swabian  idiom. 


66  A  Jfistory  of  the  German  Language 

LANGUAGES   AND   DIALECTS. 

Few  people  of  this  country  know  how  great  is  the  lack 
of  homogeneity  existing  among  all  the  more  widely  spoken 
languages  of  Europe.  This  diversity  of  speech,  however,, 
prevails  only  among  the  illiterate,  and  not  among  the  edu- 
cated. Those  who  are  of  the  present  generation  in  the 
United  States  and  whose  education  has  been  sufficient  to 
enable  them  to  read  and  write  their  mother  tongue  fairly 
well,  speak  English  so  nearly  alike  that  the  peculiarities 
are  rarely  sufficient  to  betray  the  particular  section  to 
which  they  belong.  Even  the  speech  of  the  wholly  illit- 
erate has  but  little  local  color.  But  in  Germany  the 
birth-marks  inhere,  as  a  general  thing,  in  the  speech  of  all, 
no  matter  what  their  education  may  have  been.  It  is 
only  the  language  of  the  stage  that  is  entirely  free  from 
localism.  Almost  every  university  in  Germany  contains 
one  or  more  professors  from  all  parts  of  the  empire,  and  in 
almost  every  case  an  expert  would  detect  their  native 
province  after  listening  for  a  short  time  to  their  lectures. 
Public  sentiment  is  strongly  against  obliterating  these 
local  peculiarities  This  pride  of  birth  is  so  generally  felt 
and  recognized  that  to  speak  without  any  traces  of  a  dia- 
lect is  regarded  as  a  mark  of  affectation. 

Most  Americans  who  study  German  and  many  native 
Germans  are  unaware  of  the  great  variety  the  language 
presents.  But  the  same  is  true  as  regards  French,  or 
Italian,  or  Spanish,  or  any  of  the  more  widely  spoken  lan- 
guages. The  local  French  of  Normandy  and  that  of 
Provence  are  widely  dissimilar,  and  both  are  unlike  the 
literary  French.  The  Italian  of  Lombardy  and  Calabria 
are  unlike  in  many  respects,  and  both  differ  from  the 
native  speech  of  the  Tuscans.  The  illiterate  natives  of 
these  provinces  have  great  difficulty  in  understanding  the 
natives  of  every  other,  though,  as  would  be  expected,  the 
most  widely  sundered  dialects  have  the  fewest  points  in  com  - 


A  History  of  the  German  Language  67 

mon.  A  Pomeranian  cannot  understand  a  Bernese,  while 
an  Oldenburger  finds  less  difficulty  in  comprehending 
good  Saxon  English  than  good  New  High  German,  be- 
cause there  is  a  greater  similarity  between  the  two  lan- 
guages or  dialects  lying  close  together  than  those  that  are 
farther  apart.  It  is  a  well  established  fact  that  Lessing  and 
Schiller  spoke  with  a  marked  dialectic  accent  and  adhered 
as  tenaciously  to  their  local  German  as  Carlyle  did  to  his 
"  broad  Scotch."  But  the  only  difference  in  their  written 
German  is  that  of  style. 

While  the  divergences  are  greatest  at  the  two  extremes, 
they  shade  off  into  one  another  so  gradually  that  it  is  al- 
most impossible  to  discover  where  they  begin  or  end. 
This  is  not  only  true  of  the  varieties  of  the  same  speech, 
but  also  of  languages  that  are  wholly  unlike  when  scien- 
tifically examined.  Border  languages  partake  of  a  more 
or  less  mixed  character.  The  boundaries  between  two 
distinct  governments  may  mark  the  limits  of  the  official 
language,  but  they  cannot  prohibit  the  intercourse  of  the 
people  and  the  use  of  a  medium  by  means  of  which  they 
make  themselves  mutually  understood.  Perhaps  the  only 
circumstances  under  which  two  contiguous  languages  are 
kept  from  commingling  at  all,  is  when  they  are  separated 
by  natural  barriers  that  are  almost  impassable.  Within 
the  territory  of  the  same  language  the  dialects  shade  off 
into  each  other  by  almost  imperceptible  degrees.  Careful 
observers  claim  that  they  can  detect  differences  in  the 
speech  of  the  people  of  two  villages  that  are  only  a  few 
miles  apart.  From  the  nature  of  the  case  this  must  be  so. 
If  the  extreme  eastern  and  extreme  western  or  the  ex- 
treme northern  and  extreme  southern  portions  of  a  coun- 
try having  the  same  language  are  yet  linguistically  wide 
apart  it  is  evident  that  this  must  result  from  almost  im- 
perceptible gradations  between  points  lying  close  together. 

The  historical  study  of  dialects,  as  well  as  the  history  of 
primitive  peoples,  proves  beyond  a  doubt  that  they  began 


68  A  History  of  the  German  Language 

in  a  unity  from  which  they  diverged  more  and  more  with- 
out, however,  entirely  obliterating  their  native  character- 
istics. But  after  a  time  the  centrifugal  force  has  spent 
itself  and  a  centripetal  force  begins  to  make  itself  felt. 
The  latter  is  sometimes  moral,  sometimes  political,  often 
both.  In  the  case  of  the  Greek,  the  moral  force  predom- 
inated. It  was  the  intellectual  preponderance  of  the  Attic 
dialect  that  in  the  course  of  time  made  it  the  basis  of  the 
Greek  of  the  civilized  world.  It  was  the  political  power 
of  Rome  that  gradually  carried  the  language  of  a  small  dis- 
trictrinto  every  country  subdued  by  Roman  arms.  The 
same  cause  made  the  language  of  Northern  Gaul  the  lan- 
guage of  classic  French  literature.  Farther  along  it  will 
be  shown  how  moral  causes  brought  into  existence  the 
New  High  German.  Finally,  however,  moral  causes  pro- 
duce the  most  lasting  effects.  Military  force  alone  will 
not  permanently  hold  in  subjection  a  people  who  are  in- 
tellectually the  superiors  of  their  conquerors.  In  the  end 
the  victory  remains  with  civilization  and  culture.  These 
survive  because  human  experience  has  demonstrated  that 
they  are  the  fittest.  Power  in  the  end  remains  where 
there  is  the  most  knowledge. 

Among  modern  languages  the  German  embraces  the 
largest  number  of  dialects  that  are  interesting  to  the  stu- 
dent of  language.  The  Germans  themselves  have  assid- 
uously studied  many  of  them,  while  several  embody  a  lit- 
erature of  considerable  extent  and  value.  This  is  chiefly 
owing  to  the  absence  of  a  strong  central  government  and 
the  existence  of  a  large  number  of  capitals  scattered  over 
Germany.  Natural  jealousies  were  fostered  by  these 
means,  though  they  could  not  obliterate  race  characteris- 
tics. Dialectic  differences  are  chiefly  of  two  kinds,  for 
they  rarely  affect  the  structure  of  the  sentence.  They  may 
consist  in  the  use  of  different  words  for  the  same  object, 
or  they  may  consist  in  differences  of  pronunciation  of 
words  that  are  written  precisely  alike.  Sometimes  a  word 


A  History  of  the  German  Language  69 

is  the  same  in  two  or  more  dialects,  but  has  not  the  same 
gender.  The  Germans  themselves  are  not  agreed  as  to 
how  certain  letters  of  their  language  are  to  be  pro- 
nounced. But  here,  too,  as  has  so  often  happened  in  the 
course  of  human  events,  political  power  and  intellectual 
preponderance  are  gradually  deciding  the  question.  The 
pronunciation  of  the  more  conservative  Prussians  is  des- 
tined to  become  the  norm  for  all  students  of  German. 
This  is  not,  however,  saying  that  a  time  will  ever  come 
when  there  will  no  longer  be  German  dialects.  The  per- 
sistence of  local  peculiarities  of  speech  among  a  compara- 
tively stationary  population  is  one  of  the  best  attested  facts 
of  history.  So  far  as  the  German  is  concerned  some  of 
these  can  be  traced  back  more  than  a  thousand  years,  and 
they  are  likely  to  be  still  in  existence  a  thousand  years 
hence.  The  fact  that  it  can  be  traced  in  almost  unbroken 
continuity  for  fifteen  centuries  and  has  a  longer  career  of 
uninterrupted  development  than  any  other  language  of 
western  Europe,  gives  to  German  a  unique  place  among 
the  languages  of  the  civilized  world. 


THE   NEW   HIGH    GERMAN    PERIOD. 
EXTENT   OF   TERRITORY. 

The  changes  in  the  territorial  boundaries  of  the  Ger- 
man language  during  this  period  are  not  as  great  as  dur- 
ing the  former,  nevertheless  several  of  considerable  im- 
portance took  place.  The  loss  of  French  Flanders  is  a 
serious  one  for  the  German.  In  the  seventeeth  century 
the  Flemish  tongue  extended  beyond  Boulogne  ;  at  the 
beginning  of  the  eighteenth  the  dividing  line  between  it 
and  the  French  was  near  Calais ;  now  it  is,  as  before 
stated,  east  of  Gravelines.  In  Alsace-Lorraine  the  Ger- 
man suffered  losses  at  different  times  by  the  encroach- 
ments of  the  French.  Since  1870  these  have  ceased.  In 
the  south,  the  German  is  slowly  retreating  before  the 


70  A  History  of  the  German  Language 

Romanish  and  the  Italian.  The  German  oases  upon 
Italian  territory  known  as  the  setticommum  and  the  tredeci 
communi  have  become  almost  obliterated.  In  the  s'rug- 
gle  between  the  German  and  the  Czech,  which  took  place 
where  the  outposts  of  the  former  had  pressed  upon  the  ter- 
ritory of  the  latter,  the  German  was  not  able  to  hold  what 
it  had  gained.  Here  the  opposition  to  the  German  is  par- 
ticularly strong.  In  Poland  the  Teutonic  has  been  slowly 
but  steadily  gaining  ground  for  about  two  centuries. 
Northward  the  German  has  likewise  acquired  some  terri- 
tory at  the  expense  of  the  Danish  during  the  last  two 
decades.  The  oasis  in  Lusatia  inhabited  by  Wends  is 
gradually  becoming  smaller.  A  remarkable  restriction  in 
the  use  of  the  German  language  took  place  within  Ger- 
man territory  in  the  time  under  consideration.  During 
the  M.  H.  G.  period  there  was  a  clearly  marked  tendency 
toward  the  use  of  German  prose  in  scientific  and  literary 
discussion.  This  tendency  not  only  ceased,  but  a  strong 
reaction  set  in.  At  no  period  in  the  history  of  the  Ger- 
man tongue  is  the  popular  mind  so  active  as  in  the  six- 
teenth ;  no  other  has  called  into  being  such  masterpieces 
of  native  eloquence  and  popular  satire.  Church  hymns 
of  the  very  highest  merit  and  folk-songs  of  the  same  order 
belong  to  this  period.  This  impulse  was  due  to  Luther 
more  than  to  any  other  man ;  but  he  was  only  the  leader 
of  a  movement  in  which  a  large  portion  of  the  German 
people  took  part.  The  most  tangible  evidence  of  his 
labors  in  behalf  of  his  mother-tongue  is  his  translation  of 
the  Bible,  completed  in  1534.  Of  this  about  forty  editions 
were  published  in  the  next  twenty-five  years,  and  nearly 
twice  as  many  of  the  New  Testament  portion  alone. 

But  at  the  same  time  the  use  of  the  Latin  language  is  re- 
vived both  in  prose  and  poetry.  The  Humanists — as  the 
friends  of  liberal  culture  based  on  a  knowledge  of  Greek 
and  Roman  antiquity  are  commonly  called — carried  on 
their  controversies  and  their  correspondence  in  Latin. 


A  History  of  the  German  Language  71 

Terence  was  raised  from  the  dead,  as  it  were,  to  see  his 
comedies  performed  on  the  stage  of  the  Latin  schools. 
Almost  every  scholar  translated  his  name  into  Latin  or 
Greek  as  nearly  as  it  could  be  done.  In  this  way  a  great 
deal  of  talent  and  literary  ability  that  would  naturally 
have  been  employed  in  the  development  of  the  German 
language  was  wasted ;  for  scholars  sought  their  models  in 
the  past,  chiefly  in  Cicero,  under  conditions  which  made 
even  an  approach  to  him  impossible.  A  dead  language, 
like  a  cadaver,  may  be  useful  for  dissection  and  study,  but 
growth  and  development  are  as  far  from  the  one  as  from 
the  other.  But  in  the  course  of  the  seventeenth  century 
the  unlimited  authority  of  the  Latin  begins  to  be  ques- 
tioned and  signs  of  a  linguistic  rebellion  appear  here  and 
there.  We  see  a  conscious  effort  on  the  part  of  German 
patriots  to  restore  their  grand  old  native  tongue  to  its 
place  of  honor  and  to  rescue  it  from  under  the  haughty 
dominion  of  the  foreigner.  The  situation  was  in  this  re- 
spect different  from  what  it  had  been  in  the  preceding 
period,  where  the  increasing  use  of  German  was  the  al- 
most unconscious  but  natural  result  of  the  conditions  of 
society.  The  foremost  German  savant  of  the  seventeenth 
century — Leibniz — stands  on  the  dividing  line  between 
what  may  be  called  the  old  and  the  new  era.  Though  his 
principal  works  were  written  in  Latin,  his  German  writ- 
ings give  clear  evidence  that  he  appreciated  the  worth  of 
his  mother  tongue,  and  in  them  he  champions  its  culti- 
vation, albeit  his  pleas  failed  to  produce  the  effect  they 
might  have  had  from  the  importance  and  influence  of  their 
author  had  they  been  published  during  his  life.  Younger 
contemporaries  took  more  decisive  steps  than  he.  In  the 
winter  of  1687-8,  Christian  Thomasius  gave  at  Leipzig  the 
first  course  of  lectures,  ever  delivered  in  the  German. 
During  the  latter  year  he  also  began  to  issue  the  pioneer 
of  German  literary  periodicals.  This  step  required  no  lit- 
tle courage,  for  as  was  to  be  expected,  his  colleagues  with 


72  A  History  of  the  German  Language 

few  exceptions  raised  an  outcry  against  such  a  "  desecra- 
tion "  of  the  professional  office.  Christian  Wolf — born  in 
1679 — made  German  the  language  of  Philosophy.  In  the 
wake  of  Philosophy  appeared  critical  and  historical  writ- 
ings. By  the  middle  of  the  eighteenth  century  the  Ger- 
man language  is  master  of  the  field.  Since  that  time  the 
importance  of  Latin  has  been  on  a  steady  decline.  In 
larger  works  it  is  only  used  when  the  writers  expect  to 
be  read  beyond  the  boundaries  of  Germany  ;  and  even 
then  but  rarely,  because  the  most  valuable  contributions 
to  science,  history  and  literature  are  soon  translated  into 
the  chief  languages  of  Europe.  The  use  of  Latin  is  now 
confined  almost  exclusively  to  dissertations  on  subjects 
connected  with  classical  philology. 


THE   WRITTEN   LANGUAGE  AND   FOLK-SPEECH. 

» 

The  most  important  difference  between  the  M.  H.  G. 
and  the  N.  H.  G.  is  not  mainly  one  of  pronunciation,  as 
we  have  seen  was  the  case  in  the,  transition  from  the  O. 
H.  G.  to  the  M.  H.  G.,  although  there  is  considerable  dif- 
ference in  this  respect  between  the  M.  H.  G.  and  the  N. 
H.  G.  The  salient  features  of  the  language  of  the  New 
High  German  period  are  of  a  different  kind.  In  this 
period  for  the  first  time  we  observe  a  definite  and  designed 
purpose  to  create  a  uniform  written  language  which  shall 
be  above  all  the  existing  dialects.  We  now  distinctly  rec- 
ognize two  currents  in  the  German  language.  The  one 
is,  to  use  Behaghel's  figure,  that  of  the  dialects  or  folk- 
speech,  each  of  the  latter  flowing  in  its  well-worn  and 
natural  bed,  and  each  resembling  the  other  only  in  its 
general  features.  In  fact,  every  one  of  these  may  be 
likened  to  a  separate  rivulet,  small  and  unimportant  when 
compared  with  the  main  stream.  The  other  is  the  written 
language  moving  in  an  artificial  channel,  provided  with 


A  History  of  the  German  Language  73 

many  sluices  and  filters  for  the  purpose  of  keeping  out  the 
scum,  the  sediment  and  the  earthy  taste.  The  difference 
between  the  natural  and  the  artificial  is  here  as  in  every 
other  case  very  marked.  The  process  of  unimpeded  de- 
velopment is  seen  only  in  the  dialects.  The  water  that 
flows  in  a  channel  made  by  the  hand  of  man — the  writ- 
ten language,  is  a  preparation  found  in  nature  no  oftener 
than  brooks  that  flow  with  distilled  water. 

No  belief  could  be  more  erroneous,  yet  it  is  one  held 
even  to-day  by  many  intelligent  persons  that  dialects  are 
a  corruption  of  written  speech.  Continuing  the  metaphor, 
we  may  say  that  the  fall  of  the  two  channels  is  very  un- 
like ;  the  development — to  drop  the  figure — in  a  language 
that  is  merely  spoken  is,  generally  speaking,  much  more 
rapid  than  where  a  language  is  both  spoken  and  written. 
The  former  is  facilitated  by  the  natural  conditions  of  the 
situation.  A  dialect  or  patois  is  handed  down  from  gen- 
eration to  generation  by  means  of  the  mobile  and  quickly 
vanishing  spoken  word,  and  at  most  but  two  or  three 
generations  act  upon  the  child  by  their  manner  of  speech. 
With  a  written  language  the  case  is  otherwise;  he  who 
learns  it  is  in  a  certain  sense  under  the  spell  of  the  written 
or  printed  character.  This  continually  calls  him  back  to 
an  established  norm,  and  not  only  brothers  and  sisters, 
parents  and  grandparents  are  the  instructors  of  the  young, 
but  often  words  and  modes  of  speech  are  held  up  for  imi- 
tation that  belong  to  former  centuries.  We  should,  how- 
ever, guard  against  supposing  that  the  printed  character 
does  more  than  fix  a  language  to  the  eye ;  it  cannot  check 
changes  of  pronunciation.  These  take  place  in  spite  of  it. 
The  French  and  English  languages,  and  to  a  less  extent 
the  German,  as  printed,  exhibit  their  status  as  it  was  in 
the  main  one  or  more  centuries  ago,  but  we  do  not  pro- 
nounce as  we  write.  We  still  write  English  substantially 
as  Shakespere  did,  yet  it  is  doubtful  whether  he  pro- 
nounced three  consecutive  words,  taken  at  random  from 
6 


74  A  History  of  the  German  Language 

his  plays,  as  they  are  pronounced  to-day.  In  many  cases, 
nevertheless,  the  dialects  are  more  conservative  than  the 
written  language,  and  the  uneducated  use  words  that  are 
unknown  to  those  who  have  always  been  accustomed  to 
the  language  of  books.  Such  words  have  generally  been 
preserved  through  oral  transmission,  though  they  have  not 
been  admitted  into  books,  except  for  special  purposes. 
When,  then,  we  say  that  a  written  language  is  more  con- 
servative than  one  that  is  spoken,  it  is  well  not  to  take  the 
statement  as  unconditionally  true. 

To  characterize  generally  the  development  of  the  dia- 
lects of  the  N.  H.  G.  period  it  may  be  said  that  the  inflec- 
tions suffer  abrasion  as  the  inflected  words  are  handed 
down  from  generation  to  generation.  But  the  fate  of  the 
different  dialects  was  widely  diverse,  and  their  number  is 
at  present,  legion.  In  the  single  canton  of  Bern,  which 
contains  less  than  2,700  square  miles,  or  about  one-third 
as  many  as  New  Jersey,  and  not  much  above  half  a  million 
of  inhabitants,  not  less  than  thirteen  different  dialects  have 
been  recognized.  One  who  has  accustomed  himself  to 
note  minute  differences  of  language  is  generally  able  to 
discover  the  native  district  of  a  German  from  his  mode 
of  speech.  Some  dialects  are  marked  by  a  peculiarity  of 
intonation.  Those  of  the  Saxons,  the  Thuringians  and 
the  German  Russians  are  characterized  by  a  sort  of  sing- 
song tone.  Then,  too,  the  general  impression  made  by  a 
language  differs  from  that  of  another  according  as  the 
voice  moves  in  longer  or  shorter  intervals ;  that  is,  the 
distance  between  the  rising  and  falling  inflections  is 
greater  in  some  cases  than  in  others.  In  this  regard  the 
intervals  are  in  general  less  among  the  North  Germans 
than  among  those  of  the  South.  There  is  also  a  differ- 
ence in  the  rapidity  of  utterance ;  in  the  North,  the  people 
talk  faster  than  in  the  South.  We  have  already,  in  speak- 
ing of  the  rotation  of  mutes,  called  attention  to  the  fact 
that  from  time  immemorial  diversities  have  existed  be- 


A  History  of  the  German  Language  75 

tween  the  individual  sounds,  or  tones.  The  same  tone 
has  not  everywhere  the  same  color.  So  far  as  the  conso- 
nants are  concerned  these  differences  are  substantially  the 
same  as  they  were  in  the  O.  H.  G.  and  M.  H.  G.  periods. 
The  vowels,  on  the  other  hand,  especially  the  long  ones 
and  the  diphthongs,  have  undergone  many  mutations. 
We  may  cite,  as  a  case  in  point,  the  M.  H.  G.  diphthong 
ei,  that  is  pronounced  in  the  different  H.  G.  dialects  as  ei, 
as  ai,  as  ai,  and  a,  and  oi  or  6i  and  oa.  Less  numerous 
than  the  diversities  in  the  vowel  sounds,  that  often  vary  as 
one  passes  from  village  to  village,  are  the  variations  in  the 
word  formation,  the  manner  of  composition  and  deri- 
vation, and  in  the  structure  of  the  sentence.  The  Low 
and  Middle  German  makes  diminutives  by  affixing  -ken 
and  -chen  to  the  regular  designation,  as  Hdndeken,  Hand- 
chen;  the  Upper  German  by  means  of  -H  or  -le,  as  Handli, 
Handle.  It  is  only  in  the  Low  German  that  we  find  terms 
of  endearment  terminating  in  -ing,  as  Vatting,  Mutting,  - 
Lining  and  Mining.  To  represent  the  same  ideas  the 
Alemanian  has  words  ending  in  -z,  as  Aetti  ( compare 
Gothic  Atta ),  Bilebi,  Ruodi.  In  many  of  the  Upper  Ger- 
man dialects  the  verbs  formed  with  the  prefix  zer-  are 
lacking;  instead  of  zerbrechen,  zerschlagen,  zerreiszen, 
we  find  verbreche,  verreisze,  etc.  In  place  of  the  prefix 
er-  the  Bavarian  has  der-,  making  derschlagen,  though  it 
may  be  that  this  comes  from  an  original  er-,  just  as 
minder  was  originally  minner.  The  Alemanian,  except- 
ing the  Swabian  and  some  of  the  Franconian  dialects, 
make  no  distinction  between  the  nominative  and  the  accu- 
sative case,  except  in  the  personal  pronoun.  Ich  hab  der 
vatter  net  gsehe  means  ich  habe  den  vater  mcht  gesehen. 
On  the  other  hand,  the  L.  G.  is  without  the  ending  er  in 
the  nominative  case  of  the  adjective  and  puts  in  its  stead 
the  accusative,  hei  is  en  gauden  Mann,  en  wohren  Heid, 
for  er  ist  ein  guter  Mann,  ein  wahrer  Heide.  The  per- 
sonal pronoun  of  the  third  plural  hen,  sie,  has  generally 


76       /  A  History  of  the  German  Language    . 

been  displaced  in  the  L.  G.  by  the  dative  (h)em,  ehr,  a 
fate  similar  to  that  which  has  overtaken  the  English  ac- 
cusatives for  which  we  have  the  datives  him,  her,  them. 
The  Upper,  or  South  German,  dialects  have  all  given  up 
the  imperfect  tense  of  the  verb  and  put  in  its  place  the 
perfects  with  sein  and  haben.  In  the  use  of  this  perfect 
the  Iv.  G.  shows  a  much  stronger  preference  for  the  auxil- 
iary haben  than  the  H.  G.  In  the  former  we  hear,  dat 
hett  slicht  gahn,  for,  das  ist  schlecht  gegangen;  and  even 
dat  hett  gaud  west,  for,  das  ist  gut  gewesen.  The  use  of 
the  prepositions  with  the  dative  case  has,  in  most  of  the 
L,.  G.  dialects,  suffered  considerable  loss  to  the  gain  of  the 
accusative :  dat  was  in  dat  johr  1829,  for  das  war  in  dem 
jahr,  or,  ut  dit  holt,  for,  aus  diesem  Holz,  or,  an  de  Bost, 
for,  an  der  Brust.  The  Alemanian  no  longer,  or  at  least 
rarely,  uses  the  relative  pronoun ;  in  its  place  he  has  sub- 
stituted the  adverb  wo,  as  '.$•  Hus,  wo  abbrennt  isch.  In 
dependent  sentences  the  L,.  G.  and  M.  G.  dialects  employ 
the  preterit  tense,  subjunctive  mood,  as,  mer  secht  er  war 
gstorbe  ;  on  the  other  hand  the  Bavarian  and  the  Aleman- 
ian use  the  subjunctive  present,  as,  mer  seit,  er  sig  gstorbe 
(it  is  said  he  has  died).  What  would  be  expressed  in 
book-German  by,  hieraus  war  nicht  viel  zu  entnehmen, 
would  be  in  L.  G.  with  a  change  in  the  order  of  the  words, 
hir  was  nich  vel  ut  tau  nemen.  The  diversities  in  the  vo- 
cabulary are  great  and  numerous.  Almost  every  com- 
munity employs  words  that  are  not  understood  at  a  few 
leagues  distance  ;  other  words  again  are  peculiar  to  large 
sections  of  country.  To  this  class  belong  for  the  Upper 
German  losen  for  h'oren,  lupfen  for  emporheben ;  for  the  L/. 
G.  kiken  meaning  sehen  and  trecken  meaning  ziehen.  Of- 
ten when  the  same  words  are  found  in  different  dialects 
they  have  not  the  same  signification.  In  the  Alemanian 
the  verb  lehren  is  equivalent  to  the  H.  G.  lernen  as  well 
as  to  lehren;  in  the  South  Franconian  both  significations 
are  included  in  lernen.  It  is  well  known  that  in  English 


A  History  of  the  German  Language        .  77 

the  word  "learn"  often  does  duty  for  both  itself  and.  the 
verb  "teach".  It  is  characteristic  of  the  L  G.  that  he 
uses  all  in  the  sense  of  schon,  and  that  he  applies  schon 
not  only  to  things  visible,  but  also  to  objects  that  have  an 
agreeable  taste  or  an  agreeable  smell.  Peculiar  to  the 
South  or  Upper  German  is  the  use  of  Schmuts  for  Fetty 
and  schmecken,  which  can  properly  be  applied  only  to  the 
taste,  instead  of  nechen.  Quite  remarkable  is  the  dis- 
placement which  the  meanings  of  the  verbs  signifying 
"to  go"  have  experienced  on  Upper  German  territory:  in 
one  section  the  simple  verb  gehen  is  used  as  about  equiva- 
lent to  fortgehen  (depart);  here  gehen,  meaning  to  be  in 
motion,  is  expressed  by  laufen,  but  for  the  H.  G.  laufen 
(go  quickly)  we  find  springen  used,  while  for  spnngen 
(leap)  a  number  of  different  verbs  are  employed.  There 
is  not  space  here  to  define  with  any  approach  to  complete- 
ness the  local  peculiarities  of  the  various  German  dia- 
lects ;  nor  have  they  as  yet  been  thoroughly  investigated 
and  the  results  recorded.  Many  words  have,  doubtless, 
perished  beyond  recovery  with  the  generations  that  used 
them.  A  large  number  of  careful  observers  are  however 
busy  in  this  field  and  not  a  day  passes  which  does  not 
contribute  its  increment  to  the  vocabulary  of  the  German 
language  in  its  widest  sense. 

UNIFICATION   IN   A  COMMON   LITERARY   LANGUAGE. 

The  same  considerations  of  incomplete  investigation 
hold  good  when  we  turn  to  the  artificial  structure  of  the 
N.  H.  G.  and  its  history,  which  we  found  to  be  true  in 
regard  to  the  dialects.  Nevertheless  it  is  possible  to 
sketch  a  picture  of  its  development  in  its  most  important 
outlines.  It  is  customary  to  designate  Luther  as  the  cre- 
ator of  the  German  language  as  it  is  now  written  and  to 
place  its  beginning  about  the  commencement  of  the  six- 
teenth century.  Taken  literally,  the  statement  is  not  true. 
For,  strictly  speaking,  Luther  did  not  create  the  language 


78  A  History  of  the  German  Language 

that  he  reformed  and  brought  to  honor;  besides  Germany 
had  not,  by  a  good  deal,  even  after  he  entered  upon  his 
public  career,  a  real  and  recognized  unity  of  speech.  The 
roots  of  the  German  book-language  lie  farther  back,  and 
extend  into  the  preceding  period.  In  order  that  a  cer- 
tain type  of  speech  may  gain  the  ascendency  over  another, 
or  over  every  other,  it  must  be  supported  by  some  gener- 
ally recognized  authority,  and  this  authority  must  be  suf- 
ficiently continuous  to  produce  a  permanent  impression. 
It  may  be  chiefly  political  as  in  the  case  of  ancient  Rome, 
or  modern  France  and  Spain ;  or  it  may  be  chiefly  moral 
and  literary  as  in  the  case  of  ancient  Greece  and  modern 
Italy.  It  will  then  obtain  recognition  in  proportion  to  its 
similarity  to  other  types.  Such  authority  the  official  Ger- 
man of  the  empire  must  of  necessity  have  had.  It  was 
the  language  in  which  records  were  kept,  edicts  promul- 
gated, charters  granted,  and  so  on,  beginning  with  about 
the  year  1325.  Before  this  time  the  Latin  was  chiefly  used, 
or  German  bristling  with  Latin.  Luther  himself  leaves 
us  in  no  doubt  as  to  his  method  of  procedure.  He  says  in 
one  place,  "  I  use  the  common  German  tongue  in  order 
that  both  North  Germans  and  South  Germans  may  under- 
stand me.  I  speak  according  to  the  Saxon  chancery  which 
is  followed  by  all  princes  and  kings  in  Germany.  The 
emperor  Maximilian  and  the  elector,,  duke  of  Saxony  have 
drawn  the  German  languages  into  one  language  in  the 
Roman  empire.'1  It  proved  to  be  a  fact  of  great  signifi- 
cance in  the  development  of  the  German  language  that 
the  German  emperors  belonged  to  the  same  dynasty,  with 
one  brief  interregnum,  for  almost  a  century,  from  the 
accession  of  Charles  IV.  in  1347.  Their  court  was  in  the 
capital  of  Bohemia,  a  land  upon  which  bordered  Middle 
and  Upper  German  territory,  as  well  as  the  Upper  Saxon 
and  Austrian  dialects.  The  official  language  or  Kanzlei- 
sprache  of  the  Bohemian  metropolis  was  a  sort  of  com- 
promise between  two  elements,  and  the  type  had  become  so 


A  History  of  the  German  Language  79 

firmly  fixed  that  when  the  imperial  crown  passed  from  the 
house  Luxemburg  to  that  of  Hapsburg  in  1438,  there  was 
no  change  made  in  the  official  language.  And  not  only  was 
this  language  used  in  the  imperial  chancery  for  official 
communications ;  for  while  formerly  those  documents 
which  bore  the  official  signature  of  the  emperor  were  of  a 
very  varied  character  so  far  as  their  language  was  con- 
cerned and  contained  many  provincialisms,  those  begin- 
ning with  the  era  of  Frederick  III.,  especially  those  dating 
from  the  time  of  Maximilian  and  bearing  the  official  sig- 
nature, exhibit  a  designed  uniformity  in  language  no  mat- 
ter in  what  part  of  Germany  they  were  composed.  It  fol- 
lowed from  the  nature  of  the  conditions  that  the  official 
records  of  the  minor  courts  or  chanceries  were  patterned 
after  these.  That  of  the  Elector  of  Saxony,  who  was  one 
of  the  most  influential  of  the  subordinate  sovereigns,  ex- 
ercised an  important  influence.  The  linguistic  territory 
within  its  jurisdiction  belonged  to  the  Middle  German, 
and  its  official  language  accordingly  bore  the  same  char- 
acter until  the  middle  of  the  fifteenth  century  when  it  be- 
gins to  approximate  very  plainly  to  that  of  the  imperial 
chancery.  This  is  owing  partly  to  the  introduction  of  Up- 
per German  peculiarities,  and  partly  to  the  fact  that  the 
development  of  the  Middle  German  exhibits  a  tendency 
to  approximate  in  its  pronunciation  to  the  same  speech. 
Both  these  tendencies  progressed  more  rapidly  because 
they  were  recorded  in  the  official  language  than  they  would 
have  done  without  such  support.  Here,  then,  we  have  two 
courts  that  form,  in  a  sense,  the  nucleus  of  a  unity  that 
was  destined  to  draw  others  to  itself.  This  was  the  first 
step  and  a  long  one  ;  but  it  was  nothing  more.  The  uni- 
fication was  entirely  superficial  and  affected  the  speech  of 
but  a  small  portion  of  the  people.  It  was  not  organic. 
One  fact  is  of  itself  weighty  evidence  in  this  distinction. 
The  very  sovereigns  whose  chancery-jargon  had  become  a 
pattern  for  their  peers  in  official  communications  still 


80  A  History  of  the  German  Language 

used  their  native  dialect  in  their  private  correspondence. 
But  further,  this  official  language  was  ill-suited  to  become 
the  medium  through  which  a  national  literature  should 
find  utterance,  because  the  thoughts  therein  set  forth  had 
a  rather  narrow  range  and  it  exhibited  a  preference  for 
traditional  formulas  and  stereotyped  expressions.  Its  in- 
fluence was  thus  limited  almost  exclusively  to  the  domain 
of  sounds  and  word-formation.  For  a  reconstruction  of 
the  language  as  a  whole  and  to  bring  about  complete  uni- 
fication much  was  still  lacking. 

It  was  Luther  who  did  the  decisive  deed.  The  author- 
ity inherent  in  legal  documents  is  relatively  weak  and 
limited ;  not  many  persons  read  them.  Luther's  imposing 
figure  moved  the  German  people  to  its  deepest  depths. 
He  dealt  with  questions  that  laid  hold  upon  their  hearts 
and  feelings,  no  matter  what  their  social  condition.  How 
mightily  religious  questions  move  the  Teutonic  mind  may 
be  seen  in  the  effect  produced  by  the  English  translation 
of  the  Bible  made  about  half  a  century  after  Luther's. 
Its  phraseology  has  made  such  an  impression  on  English 
diction  that  it  is  still  plainly  discernible.  Of  necessity 
the  weighty  thoughts  with  which  Luther's  words  were 
freighted  and  which  gave  them  such  wide  currency  had 
an  important  influence  on  German  style.  Not  only  his 
thoughts  but  the  form  in  which  they  were  expressed  were 
Well  calculated  to  make  a  lasting  impression  on  the  minds 
of  his  readers.  This  is  true  in  the  largest  measure  of  his 
translation  of  the  Bible  and  of  his  hymns.  The  particular 
form  in  which  Luther  expressed  himself  was  thus,  in  its 
very  nature,  the  pledge  of  a  far-reaching  influence ;  for 
with  clear  discernment  he  selected  those  words  and  ex- 
pressions that  had  already,  in  a  certain  sense,  gained  more 
or  less  currency.  This  has  already  in  part  been  pointed 
out.  But  the  more  one  studies  his  life  and  career  the  more 
one  becomes  impressed  with  the  fact  that  he  was  a  genius 
of  the  highest  order.  Not  only  was  he  a  man  of  transcen- 


A  History  of  the  German  Language  81 

dant  ability  in  certain  directions,  but  he  was  great  in  a 
variety  of  senses.  He  possessed  what  rarely  accompanies 
genius — extraordinary  tact.  The  task  which  he  under- 
took was  no  light  one,  yet  he  executed  it  with  a  skill  never 
equalled  before  or  since  on  an  equally  large  scale.  In  the 
first  place  he  made  himself  an  authority,  and  did  so  by  the 
force  of  natural  talents  alone.  To  do  this  he  had  to  gain 
the  confidence  and  affection  of  his  countrymen.  When 
he  had  gained  the  needed  authority  he  knew  how  to  use 
it  effectively;  or  perhaps  it  would  be  more  correct  to  say 
that  by  a  wise  use  of  his  influence  he  kept  on  increasing 
it.  The  times,  the  man,  and  the  occasion  all  came  to- 
gether, that  made  him  in  a  sense  the  creator  of  a  language. 
How  clearly  he  discerned  one  phase  of  the  work  before 
him  may  be  seen  from  some  of  his  remarks  on  translating. 
Says  he,  "One  who  would  talk  German  does  not  ask  the 
Latin  how  he  shall  do  it;  he  mast  ask  the  mother  in  the 
home,  the  children  on  the  streets,  the  common  man  in  the 
market-place  and  note  carefully  how  they  talk,  then  trans- 
late accordingly.  They  will  then  understand  what  is  said 
to  them  because  it  is  German.  When  Christ  says,  "  ex 
abundantia  cordis  os  loquitur,'  I  would  translate,  if  I 
followed  the  papists,  aus  dem  Ueberflusz  des  Herzens  redet 
der  Mund.  But  tell  me  is  this  talking  German  ?  What 
German  understands  such  stuff"?  No,  the  mother  in  the 
home  and  the  plain  man  would  say,  Wesz  das  Herz  volt 
ist,  des  gehet  der  Mund  iiber. 

"Luther  came  from  the  elemental  class  of  society ;  not 
from  the  ranks  of  abject,  degraded  poverty,  the  proletariat, 
but  from  the  class  which  earns  its  daily  bread  in  the  sweat 
of  its  brow,  and  which — next  to  the  peasant  class — is  the 
basis  of  the  social  structure.  Hence,  he  retained  through- 
out life  a  sympathy  with  the  laborer  and  the  peasant,  and 
a  power  of  adapting  his  expressions  to  their  shrewd,  idio- 
matic, and  terse  idiom,  and  hence,  of  course,  the  natural- 
ness and  vigor  of  his  diction.  Furthermore,  his  experience 


82  A  History  of  the  German  Language 

in  the  matter  of  dialect  was  greater  than  that  of  any  other 
man.  No  one  of  his  contemporaries  was  brought  in  con- 
tact with  so  many  men  of  such  varied  conditions  and  such 
varied  modes  of  speech.  He  was  for  years  the  father-con- 
fessor, in  the  truest  and  best  sense,  for  all  Protestantism. 
Whoever  was  in  doubt  of  mind  or  distress  of  body  or  es- 
tate wrote  or  went  in  person  to  the  great  reformer  and  was 
sure  of  a  full  and  honest  answer.  Luther's  modest  and 
quiet  abode  was  the  goal  of  a  pilgrimage  second  to  none 
of  the  Crusades.  All  the  secrets  of  the  soul,  all  the  troubles 
of  social  aud  political  life,  were  poured  into  his  sympathiz- 
ing heart  in  every  German  jargon,  from  the  rasping  gut- 
terals  of  the  Swiss  Rhine  to  the  lisping  sibilants  of  the 
half-Slavic  Drina.  Let  us  add  to  this  an  inborn  gift  of  ex- 
pression, a  delicate  ear  for  proprieties  of  speech  and  vocal 
utterance,  a  quick  perception  of  what  was  most  available, 
and  a  sturdy  common  sense  in  recognizing  what  was  at- 
tainable, and  we  sh'all  begin  to  realize  how  it  was  that 
Luther  became  the  Luther  who  personifies  to  us  the  abid- 
ing element  of  German  thought  and  speech." 

There  are  nevertheless  certain  points  connected  with 
the  spread  of  Luther's  German  upon  which  we  are  not  yet 
fully  informed.  But  it  is  safe  to  say  that  its  triumphal 
march  was  not  so  rapid  as  the  phrase  '*  Luther,  the  creator 
of  the  N.  H.  G.  language''  would  lead  one  to  suppose.  It 
met  with  vigorous  opposition  in  several  quarters.  To  sep- 
arate Luther's  language  from  his  personality  was  no 
easy  matter.  It  was  the  bearer  of  Protestant  ideas.  This 
circumstance  made  its  progress  in  Roman  Catholic  coun- 
tries a  slow  one.  How  closely  his  language  was  associated 
with  the  doctrines  he  taught  may  be  inferred  from  the 
single  fact  that  Gottsched's  Sprachlehre,  published  just 
before  the  middle  of  the  eighteenth  century,  was  for  some 
time  a  prohibited  book  in  countries  that  still  adhered  to 
the  old  belief.  Nay,  even  in  Protestant  lands  progress 
was  slow.  German  particularism,  not  unfrequ'ently  a  syn- 


A  History  of  the  German  Language  83 

onym  for  the  narrowest  sectionalism,  sometimes  entered 
the  lists  in  defense  of  local  peculiarities  in  language,  no 
less  than  in  other  affairs.  Even  as  late  as  the  middle  of  the 
seventeenth  century  or  after,  Thomas  Platter,  in  Protestant 
Basel  writes  his  autobiography  in  the  Alemanian  dialect. 
In  1671  the  authorities  of  the  Canton  of  Bern  issued  a 
rescript  to  the  clergy  in  which  they  are  exhorted  to  refrain 
from  the  use  of  an  uncommon  and  novel  German,  "  which 
only  annoys  the  intelligent  and  neither  instructs  the  com- 
mon people  in  the  truths  of  Christianity  nor  edifies  them." 
On  L.  G.  territory  the  spread  of  Luther's  language  was 
more  rapid  than  farther  south.  But  here  too  we  find  oft- 
repeated  efforts  to  raise  the  local  speech  to  the  dignity  of 
a  literary  language ;  and  these  have  not  yet  entirely  ceased. 
A  number  of  periodicals  and  almanacs  are  still  printed  in 
L.  G.  Besides  the  designed  opposition  there  was  that  also 
which  was  unintentional.  There  are  still  extant  letters 
written  in  the  sixteenth  and  seventeenth  centuries  that 
exhibit  a  strange  mixture  of  book-German  and  folk-speech. 
Specimens  of  this  may  be  seen  in  the  correspondence  of 
the  duchess  Elizabeth  of  Saxony  with  her  brother  the 
landgrave  Philip  of  Hesse.  They  show  that  the  spirit  was 
willing  but  the  flesh  weak. 

Those  who  are  interested  in  a  fuller  discussion  of  this  subject  will 
find  it  somewhat  briefly  but  lucidly  treated  by  Professor  Kluge,  in 
his  Von  Luther  bis  Lessing  and  more  fully  in,  an  unfinished  work  by 
Professor  Rueckert,  Geschichte  der  neuhochdeutschen  Schriftsprache. 

It  is  evident  from  what  has  been  said,  and  much  more 
might  be  said,  that  despite  the  zealous  efforts  of  gram- 
marians and  the  appearance  of  prominent  writers  in  the 
sixteenth  century  there  hardly  existed  a  conscious  unity 
in  the  German  language.  In  the  next  century  such  a  goal 
was  clearly  before  the  mind  of  scholars,  but  the  deviations 
from  a  direct  course  toward  it  were  still  sufficiently  evi- 
dent. It  was  not  until  the  latter  half  of  the  eighteenth 
century  that  unification  was  really  an  accomplished  fact. 


84  A  History  of  the  German  Language 

Upon  the  border  between  the  old  and  the  new  era  the  most 
prominent  figure  is  Haller.  In  the  two  first  editions  of 
his  poems  there  are  marked  traces  of  the  Alemanian  dialect  j 
for  as  he  himself  says,  "  I  am  a  Swiss.  The  German  lan- 
guage is  a  foreign  one  to  me  and  I  have  little  practice  in 
the  selection  of  words,"  where  he  evidently  means  that  he 
has  been  in  the  habit  of  using  the  words  that  he  had 
learned  in  childhood.  But  in  the  third  edition  the  traces 
of  his  maternal  dialect  have  almost  disappeared.  Eleven 
editions  of  his  poems  were  issued  during  his  life,  or  be- 
tween the  years  1732-77,  though  nearly  all  were  written 
before  1735.  His  long  residence  in  Germany  dating  from 
1736  had  doubtless  much  to  do  with  this  change  in  his 
language. 

Complete  uniformity  does  not  even  yet  prevail  and  will 
probably  never  be  attained.  Provincial  variations  in  lan- 
guage still  occur,  especially  in  the  borderlands,  as  would 
be  expected.  In  most  cases  when  a  writer  is  an  Austrian 
or  a  Swiss  one  can  discover  his  nationality  in  his  writings. 
It  is,  for  example,  a  characteristic  of  the  latter  to  use  the 
word  rufen  in  the  sense  of  hervorrufen,  verlangen,  as  der 
Antrag  rief  einer  Idngeren  Discussion,  for  der  Antrag 
rief  eine  Idngere  Discussion  hervor.  Here  both 
the  verb  and  its  object  are  not  in  accord  with  good  Ger- 
man usage.  Or,  man  hatte  schon  lange  einer  Verbesserung 
dieser  Strasze  gerufen,  for  man  hatte  schon  lange  eine  V. 
deiser  Strasze  verlangt.  This  phraseology  is  found  even 
in  Godfrey  Keller  one  of  the  leading  poets  of  the  present 
century.  Another  Swiss  peculiarity  is  the  word  jeweilen 
for  bisweilen ;  bemilhend  in  the  sense  of  peinlich,  an  einer 
Sache  bettragen  for  zu  einer  Sache  beitragen. 

The  Shibboleth  of  the  Austrian  is  the  construction  ver- 
gessen  auf  etwas  for  etwas  vergessen,  as  "auf  die  Er- 
weiterung  des  Wahlrechts  hatte  er  vergessen"  for  die 
Erweiterung  des  W. ;  and  further,  fiber  instead  of  auf,  ge- 
masz,  as,  fiber  Beschlusz,  fiber  Auftrag ;  likewise  the  word 


A  History  of  the  German  Language  85 

Gepflogenheit  (Sitte,  Gewohnheit) — which  has,  however, 
come  to  be  something  more  than  an  Austrian  peculiarity. 
Ueberall  is  not  unfrequently  found  in  North  German 
writers  in  the  sense  Qiiiberhaupt,  as,  "es  ware  die  Pflicht 
des  Herausgebers  gewesen,  wenn  erden  Aufsatz  iiberall  ac- 
ceptierte"  (Rundschau  VII. ,317).  The  use  of  erinnernfot 
sich  ennnern  is  likewise  characteristic  of  North  Germany, 
as,  "von  der  Melodie  erinnere  ich  nur  einen  Theil  instead 
of  erinnere  ich  mich,  etc.  It  is  not  improbable,  now  that 
the  political  metropolis  of  Germany  is  on  L.  G.  territory 
and  is  likewise  gaining  more  and  more  prominence  in  art 
and  literature,  that  we  shall  find  an  increasing  number  of 
L.  G.  provincialisms  finding  their  way  into  books  and 
periodicals.  The  number  of  variations  from  a  uniform 
standard  becomes  much  larger  when  we  take  into  account 
those  that  are  not  local  in  character  but  the  result  of  indi- 
vidual initiative.  And  while  it  is  conceivable,  though  not 
probable,  that  local  peculiarities  might  in  time  disappear, 
those  that  have  a  personal  stamp  will  from  their  very  na- 
ture never  cease  to  find  utterance,  owing  to  causes  that  lie 
in  the  nature  of  language. 

There  is  not  a  moment,  as  we  shall  see  farther  on,  when 
the  development  of  a  language  is  at  a  standstill.  By  vir- 
tue of  a  law  of  inherent  necessity  new  word-forms,  new 
combinations  of  old  words,  and  even  wholly  new  words 
are  called  into  existence  without  cessation.  And  so  there 
goes  on  an  endless  struggle  between  the  old  and  the  new  ; 
there  is  a  prevailing  uncertainty,  a  vascillation  in  the  use 
of  language  that  can  never  be  removed  from  a  living 
tongue.  We  may  call  the  product  excrescences  and  cor- 
ruptions, blossoms  of  style  or  weeds  of  style,  neologisms 
or  barbarisms,  or  what  not,  but  we  know  that  the  thing 
exists  and  will  continue  to  spring  into  existence.  It  was 
the  observation  of  these  phenomena  that  led  the  poet 
Horace  to  write,  "It  is  a  license  that  has  been  granted  and 
ever  will  be,  to  put  forth  a  new  word  stamped  with  the 


86  -A  History  of  the  German  Language 

current  die.  At  each  year's  fall  the  forests  change  their 
leaves,  those  green  in  spring  then  drop  to  earth  ;  even  so 
the  old  race  of  words  passes  away,  while  new-born  words, 
like  youths,  flourish  in  vigorous  lite." 

These  observations  are  true  not  only  of  German  and 
Latin,  but  of  every  language,  so  long  as  it  is  in  constant  use. 
The  same  forces  are  everywhere  at  work  and  the  products 
similar.  It  is  plainly  evident  in  our  day  that  the  birth  of 
new  words,  like  the  birth  of  human  beings,  largely 
exceeds  in  number  the  death  of  old  ones,  as  may  be  seen 
from  a  comparison  of  a  recently  compiled  dictionary  with 
one  of  older  date.  In  fact  there  seems  to  be  a  concerted 
effort  on  the  part  of  lexicographers  to  secure  from  entire 
oblivion  any  word  that  has  ever  found  its  way  into  print. 

In  what  may  be  designated  as  morphology,  the  German 
exhibits  a  comparatively  small  number  of  variations.  It 
is  equally  correct  to  say  der  Friede  and  der  Frieden,  des 
Bauer s  and  des  Bauern,  die  Lumpe  and  die  Lumpen ;  and 
so  of  other  doublets.  Er  kommt  and  er  kommt  are  both 
permissible  though  the  former  is  doubtless  to  be  preferred  ; 
er  schwor  and  er  schwur,  er  fragte  and  er  frug  are  all  in 
use  though  perhaps  in  all  cases  the  weight  of  authority  is 
in  favor  of  one  or  the  other  of  the  two  forms.  In  the  follow- 
ing examples  the  second  is  preferable  to  the  first,  die  B rote- 
die  Brote^  die  Spornen-dieSporen,  hand  gehabt-gehandhabt, 
Variations  in  the  usage  and  mistakes  in  the  collocations 
of  words  are  of  frequent  occurrence.  Persons  who  have 
not  sufficient  education  to  write  grammatically  have  nev- 
ertheless something  to  say  in  which  the  public  is  often 
interested,  or  which  the  writers  believe  will  be  of  interest 
to  others  besides  themselves.  We  accordingly  find  such 
errors  as,  trotz  des  Regens  for  trotz  dem  Regen ;  wdhrend 
des  Tages  and  wdhrend  dem  Tage ;  der  Gehalt  and  das 
Gehalt;  ich  habe  gestanden  and  ich  bin  gestanden.  But 
trotz  as  a  preposition  properly  takts  the  genitive  case  like 
wdhrend,  Gehalt  is  of  the  masculine  gender,  and  stchen  is 


A  History  of  the  German  Language  87 

conjugated  with  sein.  Not  unfrequently  ich  anerkenne  is 
used  for  ich  erkenne  an ;  der  mich  betroffene  UnfalL  instead 
of  der  Unfall,  der  mich  betroffen.  We  read  of  einer 
reitenden  Artillerie-Kaserne  or  of  einer  Idndlichen  Arbei- 
terfrage,  though  the  barracks  are  not  mounted  nor  is  the 
question  agrarian.  A  large  number  of  erroneous  col- 
locations of  words  arise  from  the  circumstance  that  during 
the  act  of  writing  or  speaking  two  equally  authorized  ex- 
pressions occur  to  the  mind  at  the  same  time  and  a  part 
only  of  each  is  used.  This  will  explain  such  phrases  as 
sich  befindlich,  which  is  evidently  a  mixture  of  sich  befin- 
dend  and  befindlich.  Renter  often  uses  the  formula,  wat 
gelt  mt  dat  an,  plainly  a  combination  of  a  part  of  was  gilt 
mtr  das?  and  of  was  gehl  mich  das  an?  In  Emilia  Galotti, 
when  Claudia  tells  how  furious  Emilia's  father  had  been 
on  learning  that  the  prince  had  lately  seen  her  "nichtokne 
Muzfallen"  (not  without  displeasure),  she  really  meant 
nicht  ohne  Wohlgefallen,  the  exact  opposite  of  what  her 
words  taken  literally,  signify. 

Mistakes  in  the  use  of  words  are  usually  of  two 
kinds.  On  the  one  hand,  old  words  are  used  with  new 
meanings  which  do  not  properly  belong  to  them ;  as  for 
example  when  verdanken  is  employed  in  the  sense  of  Dank 
sagen  while  it  can  properly  be  used  only  in  the  sense  of  the 
French  'devoir.'  It  is  correct  to  say  ich  verdanke  thm 
dieses  (I  am  indebted  to  him  for  this,  je  lui  dois  ceci ),  but 
ich  sage  ihm  Dankfilr  dieses  ( I  thank  him  for  this))  has  a 
somewhat  different  meaning.  Again,  beilaufig  ( incident- 
ally) is  used  as  if  it  were  ungefahr  instead  of  nebenbei 
bemerkt;  or  bereits  in  the  sense  of  beinahe  (almost)  instead 
of  schon  (already).  On  the  other  hand — and  the  number 
of  errors  of  this  sort  is  legion — new  words  are  formed,  gen- 
erally new  derivatives  or  new  compounds.  As  the  Ger- 
man lends  itself  so  readily  to  combinations  of  this  kind 
there  is  a  great  temptation  for  those  who  have  occasion  to 
use  a  new  word  to  coin  one  to  suit  their  real  or  imagined 


88  A  History  of  the  German  Language 

purpose.  But  it  requires  an  adequate  knowledge  of  the 
language  to  coin  new  words  in  conformity  to  its  principles. 
Some  of  the  most  offensive  of  these  neologisms  are  dies- 
beziiglich,  Lebendgeburten,  Nebensdtzlichkeiten  (Nebensdtze)^ 
daherig,  demnachstig,  mittlerweihg ,  verbescheiden,  and  so 
on.  A  mere  glance  at  the  mode  of  composition  employed 
in  these  wiords  will  enable  the  reader  to  see  its  illegitimacy. 
The  largest  contingent  of  neologisms  is  furnished  by  the 
newspaper  press.  Newspaper  German  and  bad  German 
are  pretty  nearly  synonymous  terms,  a  statement  that  is 
true  of  other  modern  languages  also.  And  the  complaints 
are  growing  in  frequency  over  the  degeneracy  of  this  cur- 
rent ephemeral  literature.  Almost  all  who  write  are  so 
eager  to  come  before  the  public  that  it  does  not  seem  to 
make  much  difference  to  them  in  what  garb.  The  ille- 
gitimate offspring  of  the  faculty  of  speech  to  which  atten- 
tion has  been  briefly  called  above,  together  with  other 
divergences  from  the  normal  type  are  chiefly  those  of  con- 
struction and  word-formation.  They  are  not  as  noticeable 
to  foreigners  or  to  persons  of  limited  culture  as  the  varia- 
tions in  pronunciation  to  which  attention  has  already  been 
called.  The  same  vowels  and  diphthongs  as  well  as  the 
same  consonants  and  combination  of  consonants  are 
very  differently  pronounced  in  different  parts  of  Ger- 
many. This  is  mystifying  not  only  to  the  foreigner 
who  has  learned  his  German  chiefly  from  books,  but 
a  stumbling-block  to  the  Germans  themselves  who  are 
often  at  a  loss  to  understand  the  language  of  a  district 
lying  at  some  distance  from  their  own.  In  view  of  the 
facts  in  the  case,  it  is  a  question  how  the  efforts  toward  the 
unification  of  the  N.  H.  G.  can  be  most  judiciously  direct- 
ed toward  the  accomplishment  of  the  desired  end.  If,  as 
I  hope  to  show  later,  all  these  divergences  and  errors  have 
a  psychological  justification ;  if  all  progress  in  language 
is  closely  related  to  them,  are  we  not  in  duty  bound  to  let 
them  have  free  course  ?  Shall  not  we  make  a  practical 


A  History  of  the  German  Language  89 

application  of  the  words  of  Goethe,  "  What  we  understand 
we  can  not  find  fault  with"  ?  It  is  doubtful  whether  such 
a  conclusion  naturally  follows.  In  morals,  in  social  life, 
many  things  are  done  to  which  we  can  not  justly  take  ex- 
ception, but  which  may  nevertheless  be  prohibited  by  ethi- 
cal or  statute  laws  because  they  are  incompatible  with  the 
objects  for  which  society  exists.  The  unconditioned  liberty 
of  one  person  interferes  with  that  of  others.  He 
is  a  rare  man  who  can  do  as  he  pleases  without 
coming  in  conflict  with  his  fellow  men.  The  ends 
at  which  society  aims  in  the  use  of  language  may 
also  require  an  interference  against  a  license  that 
is  proper  enough  in  itself.  The  mere  fact  of  the  ex- 
istence of  a  written  language  is  in  contravention  of  the 
hereditary  rights  of  dialects.  Errors  of  speech  and  disre- 
gard of  the  laws  of  language  are  contrary  to  the  ends  for 
which  languages  exist,  and  to  a  greater  or  less  extent  de- 
feat those  ends.  These  are  the  accurate  communication 
of  thoughts  and  feelings  to  others.  In  order  that  com- 
munication may  be  adequate  and  exact,  language  must 
possess  two  characteristics  :  perfect  comprehensibility  and 
perfect  beauty  of  form.  Offenses  against  beauty  of  form 
are  harmful  in  two  ways.  The  attention  of  the  reader  or 
listener  is  withdrawn  from  the  contents  of  a  communica- 
tion to  mere  externals  and  therefore  to  non-essentials. 
Generally  when  our  aesthetic  sense  is  offended  by  an  inar- 
tistic form  in  language  we  unconsciously  get  an  aversion 
to  the  content.  An  educated  person  is  rarely  impressed 
by  the  words  of  a  speaker  who  uses  bad  grammar,  as  he 
would  be  if  he  spoke  correctly.  Most  errors  of  speech  are 
not  only  a  bar  to  perfect  intelligibility  but  are  also  sins 
against  the  canons  of  style.  An  unusual  expression  or  a 
word  to  which  we  are  unaccustomed  does  not  call  up  in 
the  mind  with  the  same  rapidity  the  designed  representa- 
tion that  an  old  and  familiar  one  does.  A  keen  sense  of 
beauty  and  propriety  is  painfully  wounded  when  words 

7 


90  A  History  of  the  German  Language 

having  an  entirely  modern  stamp  are  used  side  by  side 
with  obsolete  ones.  There  is  no  doubt  then,  it  would 
seem,  that  we  are  perfectly  right  when  we  demand  of  each 
individual  that  for  the  benefit  of  all  he  shall  refrain  from 
the  employment  of  all  incorrect  forms  of  speech.  And 
though  the  variations  in  German  may  have  a  certain  justi- 
fication for  their  existence,  we  do  right  in  demanding  the 
avoidance  of  everything  that  may  lead  to  uncertainty,  and 
in  setting  up  a  norm  of  correct  speech.  The  simplest 
style, — a  mode  of  expression  that  is  easily  understood  by 
the  most  unlettered  rustic — may  nevertheless  be  just  as 
correct  in  grammar  and  as  careful  in  the  choice  of  words 
as  the  most  ornate.  There  can  be  no  possible  advantage 
in  fostering  dialectic  diversity  and  there  is  considerable 
disadvantage,  while  the  tendency  of  advancing  civilization 
is  clearly  toward  uniformity.  Almost  everything  that  can 
be  said  in  favor  of  diversity  is  that  it  is  easier  for  every- 
body to  express  himself  in  his  native  dialect  than  to  ac- 
custom himself  to  a  style  with  which  he  is  more  or  less 
unfamiliar.  But  if  we  attach  any  weight  to  such  a  laissez- 
faire  doctrine  we  may  as  well  go  further  and  object  to  learn- 
ing everything  that  is  difficult. 

But  the  serious  question  is  this :  How  shall  we  decide 
in  each  particular  instance  whether  a  word  or  a  mode  of 
speech  is  to  be  regarded  as  correct,  or  at  least  admissible, 
or  incorrect.  At  the  first  blush  we  should  be  inclined  to 
demand  that  language  shall  conform  to  the  laws  of  logic. 
For  there  is  no  doubt  that  the  logical  contradictions  and 
vague  expressions  that  we  meet  with  in  language  obstruct 
a  clear  comprehension  of  the  meaning  and  disagreeably 
affect  the  artistic  sense.  On  this  ground  then  much  that 
is  spoken  and  written  must  at  once  be  discarded  as  illogical. 
But  our  faith  in  the  competency  of  the  rules  of  logic  to 
decide  questions  in  language  is  rudely  shaken  when  we 
discover  that  in  many  cases  language  and  logic  are  not  on 
friendly  terms  with  each  other,  and  that  the  concepts  fre- 


A  History  of  the  German  Language  91 

quently  combined  in  words  do  not  comport  with  the  rules 
of  logic.  The  term  Maulwurf—  which  in  old  English  was 
'mold-warp'  because  the  animal  so  named  casts  up  the 
mold — ought  to  mean  a  throw  that  is  made  with  the  mouth 
or  snout,  but  not  a  little  creature  that  casts  up  the  earth 
with  its  feet.  In  this  case  the  English  designation  is  more 
nearly  correct  than  the  German.  We  hear  of  a  Vaterbrust, 
of  a  Gdnsebrust  as  designating  the  breast  of  a  father  or 
of  a  goose,  and  a  bodice  is  called  a  Schniirbrust  because  it 
is  used  to  lace  the  breast.  In  all  these  compounds  there 
is  not  much  deviation  from  the  meaning  of  the  simple 
words  that  enter  into  them.  But  who  by  taking  these  as 
a  guide  could  divine  the  signification  of  Armbrust  (cross- 
bow) ?  The  Germans  say  erne  Ansicht  teilen  just  as  we 
say  in  English  '  to  share  an  opinion  '  or  '  a  view,'  in  spite 
of  the  fact  that  when  an  opinion  is  shared  with  one  or 
more  persons  it  does  not  for  that  reason  become  the  less, 
as  if  it  were  a  material  substance.  It  is  sometimes  said 
of  a  person  that  his  coat  or  his  home  or  his  native  land  got 
too  small  for  him ;  and  yet  it  was  the  man  alone  who 
changed.  Logically  then  we  could  only  say  that  he  be- 
came too  large  for  his  coat  after  the  manner  of  the  homely 
proverb  "  he  got  too  big  for  his  boots."  It  is  illogical  and 
objectionable  to  speak  of  one  who  has  drunk  as  einen  ge- 
trunkenen ;  nevertheless  ein  Trunkener  is  exactly  equiva- 
lent in  meaning  to  ein  Getrunkener.  Similarly  we  say  in 
English,  the  man  was  drunk,  when  in  fact  it  was  an  intox- 
icating liquid  that  was  drunk.  It  would  be  logical  to  say, 
the  man  has  drunk,  but  not  that  he  was  drunk.  The 
word  Bedienter  (literally,  one  who  is  served)  does  not  des- 
ignate the  recipient  of  a  service  at  the  hands  of  another, 
but  one  whose  business  it  is  to  render  service  to  another. 
A  biting  dog  is  a  dog  that  bites  just  as  a  kicking  mule  is 
one  that  kicks,  but  a  riding-saddle  or  a  riding-horse  is  a 
saddle  or  a  horse  to  be  rode  on,  while  a  drinking-cup  or  a 
drinking-fountain  are  neither  to  be  drunk  nor  things  that 


92  A  History  of  the  German  Language 

drink,  but  they  are  objects  to  be  used  for  drinking  pur- 
poses. We  thus  find  that  the  English  participle  in  -ing  is 
used  in  two  exactly  opposite  senses,  and  its  particular 
meaning  in  any  given  instance  must  always  be  determined 
by  the  context.  The  same  is  true  of  other  languages. 
The  German  entbloden  is  formed  just  like  entkleiden  and 
entfarben,  and  might  rationally  be  supposed  to  signify,  to 
lay  off  one's  modesty,  shamefacedness,  or  in  other  words 
to  be  equivalent  to  sich  nicht  scheuen.  In  fact,  however 
" er  entblodete  sich  nicht'1'1  is  used  like  " er  scheute  sich 
nicht"  where  the  negative  in  the  first  sentence  is  plainly 
illogical.  The  terms  Fastnacht,  Weihnacht  refer  not  only 
to  the  hours  of  the  night,  but  much  more  to  those  of  the 
day.  The  English  fortnight  is  similarly  used.  It  would 
be  an  unendurable  contradiction  to  speak  of  a  piece  of 
wooden  iron  or  of  a  quadrangular  circle  ;  yet  Wachsstreich- 
holzchen  is  in  common  use  as  well  as  viereckige  Fenster- 
scheibe,  notwithstanding  the  fact  that  Scheibe  means  disk. 
It  will  thus  be  seen  that  there  are  illogical  forms  of  expres- 
sion that  are  linguistically  incorrect  and  others  that  are 
universally  regarded  as  correct.  In  some  cases  we  notice 
the  logical  inconsistency,  in  others  we  do  not.  The  rules 
of  logic  will  not  therefore  enable  us  to  decide  whether  a 
given  word  or  phrase  is  grammatically  correct  or  incor- 
rect. Questions  of  this  sort  must  be  brought  before  an- 
other tribunal  for  decision.  This  will  be  further  evident 
from  some  additional  considerations.  Of  a  given  number 
of  words  formed  exactly  alike,  some  will  stand  the  test  of 
logic  and  some  will  not.  The  German  vocabulary  con- 
tains the  word  Mannesalter ;  logically  then  it  ought  also 
to  contain  the  word  Frauenalter,  or  at  least  such  a  com- 
pound would  be  in  accordance  with  the  principles  of  word- 
composition.  Yet  it  does  not  occur.  Conversely  we  find 
Frauenzimmer  but  not  Mannes simmer.  From  Tag  are 
formed  tagen  and  Tagung  to  designate  the  meeting  of  a 
congress,  diet,  etc.,  by  day.  It  would  be  logical  then  to 


A  History  of  the  German  Language  93 

speak  of  the  same  occurence  if  it  took  place  at  night  as 
nachten  and  Nachtung.  But  these  words  are  not  a  part  of 
the  German  vocabulary,  and  if  one  were  to  coin  them  they 
would  be  scarcely  intelligible  in  spite  of  their  familiar 
analogues.  It  is  correct  to  say  ganz  und  gar  nicht  and 
even  gar  nicht,  but  the  people  of  Basel  are  clearly  in  the 
wrong  when  they  say,  as  they  often  do,  ganz  nicht.  From 
the  few  examples  above  given,  which  might  be  increased 
almost  indefinitely,  it  is  easy  to  see  that  grammatical  anal- 
ogy affords  little  or  no  aid  in  determining  what  is  correct 
in  language  and  what  is  not. 

But  perhaps  the  aesthetic  feelings  will  furnish  us  with  a 
more  trustworthy  guide  than  anything  else ;  for  it  is  uni- 
versally admitted  that  in  order  to  fulfill  the  objects  for 
which  speech  exists,  beauty  of  form  is  of  paramount  im- 
portance. We  might  make  a  test  by  allowing  the  intelli- 
gent public  to  decide  between  two  forms  of  expression,  in 
order  to  ascertain  which  is  the  more  nearly  perfect.  Here 
too,  as  is  usually  the  case  where  the  beauty  of  an  object  is 
the  matter  under  consideration,  the  question  to  be  deter- 
mined is  how  far  the  passage  under  consideration  com- 
bines harmony  of  form  and  content.  But  since,  in  lan- 
guage as  we  find  it  to-day,  with  only  the  rarest  exceptions, 
no  relation  exists  between  the  form  of  a  word  and  its 
meaning  the  whole  discussion  falls  to  the  ground  at  once. 
If  we  were  to  assume  that  the  beauty  of  a  word  or  of  a 
collocation  of  words  consisted  solely  in  their  power  to  fur- 
nish gratification  to  the  sense  of  hearing  we  should  find 
ourselves  in  the  domain  of  music  and  of  pure  subjectivity, 
when,  in  effect,  we  are  doing  what  we  can  to  curb  the  ten- 
dency to  resort  to  individual  judgment.  And  as  there  are 
all  degrees  of  capacity  among  men  to  appreciate  the 
beauty  of  musical  sounds,  the  same  is  true  when  applied 
to  language.  Here  then  as  in  music  there  are  a  number 
of  generally  recognized  and  well  established  laws  that  can 
be  broken  with  impunity  only  by  the  privileged  few.  Men 


94  A  History  of  the  German  Language 

equally  competent  judges  and  equally  masters  of  a  lan- 
guage may  differ  as  to  which  of  two  words  or  two  expres- 
sions is  the  more  harmonious.  It  is  well  to  remember  too 
that  what  is  familiar  is  generally  more  or  less  agreeable. 
We  listen  with  pleasure  to  the  language  or  the  melodies 
to  which  we  have  been  long  accustomed  though  to  others 
they  may  sound  harsh  and  inharmonious.  In  like  man- 
ner long  usage  may  blind  us  to  blemishes  of  style  and 
bad  grammar,  a  fact  of  which  daily  observation  furnishes 
us  with  numerous  examples.  The  question  is  easier 
answered  if  we  put  it  thus :  which  of  two  words  harmo- 
nizes better  with  its  environment  in  a  given  sentence? 
The  chief  beauty  of  discourse  consists  in  unity  of  style. 
No  attempt  should  be  made  to  place  antique  ornamenta- 
tion on  modern  furniture,  nor  should  venturesome  innova- 
tions be  mingled  with  well  established  art-forms  of  the 
past.  In  this  respect,  then,  the  competence  of  the  aesthetic 
judgment  is  beyond  dispute.  Unfortunately  the  aesthetic 
sense  of  the  Germans  is  not  at  all  sensitive.  We  have 
sufficient  evidence  of  this  in  the  obvious  tendency  to  use 
foreign  words.  Many  persons  who  attach  great  impor- 
tance to  style  and  to  being  "  in  the  style,"  in  many  things 
and  who  would  regard  it  as  little -short  of  sacrilege  to  put 
modern  furniture  in  an  old  German  chamber  do  not  hesi- 
tate to  employ  a  motley  intermixture  of  German,  Latin 
and  French  words  in  discourse  without  the  faintest  con- 
ception of  the  sins  against  style  they  are  committing. 
How  much  more  difficult  then  will  it  .be  for  this  feebly  de- 
veloped feeling  for  style  to  discriminate  justly  among  pure 
German  words  ?  The  only  remedy  lies  in  the  cultivation 
and  development  of  a  higher  sense  of  propriety  in  matters 
of  literary  form  before  it  can  be  relied  on  for  guidance. 
It  is  however  always  easy  to  determine  by  direct  percep- 
tion whether  a  word  or  an  expression  is  perfectly  clear 
without  calling  in  the  adventitious  aid  of  logic  and  aes- 
thetics. Words,  whether  simple  or  compound,  and  sen- 


A  History  of  the  German  Language  95 

tences  are  intelligible  in  proportion  to  our  familiarity  with 
their  use  either  by  ourselves  or  by  others.  Usage  alone 
decides  what  is  correct  and  what  incorrect.  That  which 
is  in  common  use  is  linguistically  right  and  what  is  un- 
usual is  wrong.  Careful  observation  of  usage  alone  will 
cultivate  the  sense  of  harmony  in  speech  whether  written 
or  spoken,  and  it  is  only  by  this  means  that  absolute  per- 
fection can  be  more  and  more  nearly  reached.  The  sense 
of  style  is  nothing  more  than  knowledge  that  has  become 
unconscious,  a  reminiscence  of  the  collocation  of  words 
often  observed  before,  and  a  recognition  of  others  that 
have  an  unfamiliar  look.  This  is  the  rule  of  Horace,  or 
rather  a  statement  of  facts  observed  by  him,  nearly  two 
thousand  years  ago,  when  he  says  that  new  words  come 
into  existence  and  others  die 

si  volet  usus,  quern  penes  arbitriumst  et  jus  et 

norma  loquendi : 

Every  Grammar  and  every  Rhetoric  that  has  ever  been 
written,  beginning  with  Aristotle,  is  nothing  more  than 
an  attempt  to  formulate  into  rules  the  usage  followed  by 
the  best  writers.  Language  precedes  grammar,  and  not 
grammar,  language.  But  how  shall  we  proceed  to  ascer- 
tain the  laws  of  linguistic  usage  ?  The  German  as  well  as 
the  Englishman  is  not  so  fortunately  situated  in  this  re- 
gard as  the  members  of  several  other  nations.  For  him 
there  is  no  legislative  body,  no  Academy  like  the  French, 
always  prepared  to  render  a  decision  upon  doubtful  points. 
Many  have  regretted  this ;  in  spite  of  the  fact  that  it  is 
doubtful  whether  such  a  corporation  has  much  influence  in 
directing  the  development  of  language.  The  comprehen- 
sive mind  of  Leibniz  concerned  itself  more  than  two  hun- 
dred years  ago  with  the  formation  of  a  German  Academy, 
and  in  quite  recent  times  the  demand  for  such  an  institu- 
tion has  again  found  expression  in  public  prints  and 
elsewhere.  It  is  very  doubtful,  however,  whether  the  re- 
sults likely  to  be  attained  are  worth  the  effort.  In  the 


96  A  History  of  the  German  Language 

first  place,  where  could  a  dozen,  or  even  half  a  dozen 
German  scholars  be  found  who  would  be  able  to  come  to 
an  agreement  as  to  what  is  the  usage  of  their  language, 
and  competent  to  lay  down  a  set  of  rules  in  the  matter  ? 
When  the  question  of  regulating  German  orthography 
was  discussed  at  a  conference  recently  called  to  meet  in 
Berlin  for  that  purpose,  it  was  found  that  even  upon  such 
a  subordinate  and  apparently  unimportant  matter  no 
agreement  could  be  reached.  The  English  advocates  of  a 
spelling  reform  are  likewise  meeting  with  but  little  en- 
couragement. But  aside  from  such  practical  difficulties  it 
lies  in  the  nature  of  the  case  that  a  set  of  printed  rules 
can  not  keep  pace  with  the  growth  of  a  living  language. 
The  writing  public  pays  little  attention  to  such  rules.  If 
a  new  word  aptly  designates  a  new  thing  it  will  be  gener- 
ally adopted,  no  matter  how  illogically  it  may  be  con- 
structed. In  like  manner,  a  happily  turned  phrase  rapidly 
gains  currency  no  matter  how  repugnant  it  may  be  to  a 
cultivated  taste,  provided  it  be  expressive.  The  experi- 
ence of  the  French  shows  very  plainly  the  difficulties  that 
such  a  code  has  to  encounter.  The  more  persistently  the 
Dictionnaire  de  I  ^  Academic  adhered  to  its  elegant  classi- 
cism the  stronger  grew  the  sentiment  against  it,  and  the 
more  rampant  did  unbridled  license  in  language  become 
as  the  Romantic  school  began  to  grow  in  popular  favor. 
As  a  result  the  French  are  to-day  not  much  better  off  in 
this  respect  than  the  Germans ;  their  periodicals  are  about 
as  much  as  the  German  the  arena  on  which  carelessness 
in  the  use  of  words  and  expressions  have  full  play,  and 
where  neologisms  abound. 

Fewer  drawbacks,  doubtless,  attach  to  the  labors  and 
suggestions  of  private  individuals  than  to  dicta  of  official 
bodies.  Rules  are  not  so  likely  to  become  obsolete,  for  the 
reason  that  with  a  constant  efflux  of  fresh  writings  the 
new  takes  its  place  alongside  of  the  old.  Books  of  rules 
no  doubt  have  their  uses,  but  it  is  neither  convenient  nor 


A  History  of  the  German  Language  97 

profitable  to  turn  to  their  pages  when  writing  or  speaking 
in  order  to  ascertain  how  that  which  we  have  to  say  may 
be  most  fitly  expressed.  Such  a  proceeding  would  be 
very  much  as  if  one  were  in  a  company  and  the  question 
happening  to  turn  upon  some  difficult  point  of  etiquette 
we  should  have  recourse  to  Knigge's  Umgang  mil  Men- 
schen,  or  to  some  similar  manual  that  we  might  happen  to 
have  with  us.  Usage  in  language  must  not  be  a  mere  ex- 
ternal matter ;  it  needs  to  be  a  part  of  one's  self.  This  it 
can  never  become  if  we  do  not  drink  for  ourselves  from 
the  same  fountains  from  which  the  compilers  of  lexicons 
and  dictionaries  have  drawn.  How  to  express  our  thoughts 
intelligibly  and  intelligently  as  well  as  with  grace,  is  a 
power  that  can  only  be  acquired  through  a  familiarity 
with  the  way  others  have  habitually  given  utterance  to 
their  thoughts.  We  must  make  our  own  the  highly  de- 
veloped sense  of  form  in  language  acquired  by  others. 
Generally  speaking,  the  more  one  reads  the  more  acute 
will  his  sense  of  the  beauty  of  diction  become.  But  it 
should  be  carefully  noted  that  it  is  not  the  quantity  of  the 
matter  read  that  makes  the  well-read  man.  The  votes 
must  not  be  merely  counted ;  they  must  also  be  weighed. 
We  can  not  learn  what  constitutes  good  breeding  from 
those  who  are  indifferent  to  good  breeding.  The  litera- 
ture of  the  passing  day — most  of  which  is  entitled  to  be 
called  literature  solely  because  it  is  expressed  in  the  letters 
of  the  alphabet — that  is  produced  so  hurriedly  as  to  ex- 
clude every  consideration  of  style,  can  not  exercise  a 
formative  influence  on  the  mode  of  expression  of  those 
who  read  it.  Its  tendency  is  deformative,  rather.  This 
is  true  not  only  of  the  average  newspaper,  but  of  the  writ- 
ings of  many  authors  who  are  the  favorites  of  the  multi- 
tude, and  who  consider  themselves  under  obligations  to 
bless  the  world  every  year  with  a  fresh  novel.  Yet  it  is 
true,  on  the  other  hand,  that  one  of  the  most  prolific  liv- 
ing authors,  Paul  Heyse,  is  likewise  an  incomparable  mas- 


98  A  History  of  the  German  Language 

ter  of  German  style.  But  there  is  one  other  practice  be- 
sides the  reading  of  newspapers  and  other  periodicals 
that  blunts  the  keen  sense  of  style :  this  is  translating 
from  foreign  languages.  Translators  rarely  succeed  in 
eliminating  all  the  peculiarities  of  the  foreign  tongue. 
Latinisms  and  Gallicisms  have  almost  become  an  integral 
part  of  German,  or  are  in  a  fair  way  to  become  so.  But 
the  German  itself  may  be  the  means  of  defiling  its  own 
purity.  How  this  is  liable  to  happen  can  be  seen  in  the 
writings  of  Jacob  Grimm.  It  is  with  genuine  enjoyment 
that  the  appreciative  reader  observes  his  wonderful  mas- 
tery over  his  native  German.  With  what  warmth  and  en- 
thusiasm does  he  enter  into  its  life  and  spirit !  How 
thoroughly  he  has  at  command  all  the  resources  of  the 
language !  But  his  familiarity  with  its  earlier  stages 
seems  not  unfrequently  to  have  blunted  a  comprehension 
of  the  legitimate  claims  of  current  speech ;  old  German 
words  and  combinations  of  words  are  not  uncommon  in 
his  works.  There  are  doubtless  intentional  deviations 
from  modern  usage  for  the  purpose  of  expressing 
thoughts  and  things  belonging  to  the  past.  A  like  prone- 
ness  to  resort  to  the  use  of  archaisms  is  often  noticeable 
in  the  writings  of  clergymen  and  others  who  are  habitual 
readers  of  the  English  Bible. 

Language,  as  has  been  said  above,  is  in  perpetual  growth 
and  movement.  As  new  words  come  into  vogue  with  new 
things,  old  ones  pass  into  oblivion  with  the  disuse  of  the 
objects  to  which  thev  are  affixed.  There  will  thus  often 
occur  cases  where  the  exigency  of  the  occasion  compels  a 
writer,  when  dealing  with  the  past,  to  sacrifice  either  the 
accuracy  of  his  designation  of  an  object  or  the  justness  of 
the  conception  he  wishes  to  express,  or  to  introduce  anti- 
quated words  and  formulas.  It  may  be  assumed  to  be  al- 
together impossible  to  write  in  a  strictly  modern  style  upon 
subjects  that  pertain  chiefly  or  wholly  to  the  past.  There 
is  a  class  of  writers  who  of  set  purpose  deviate  from  the 


A  History  of  the  German  Language  99 

current  fashion  of  language.  They  are  the  humorists. 
Errors  readily  noticed  often  serve  to  heighten  the  comic 
effects  they  wish  to  produce,  and  the  design  of  portraying 
the  petty  concerns  of  life  frequently  leads  to  the  use  of 
new  and  unheard  of  compounds.  Richter  has  incidentally 
touched  upon  the  value  to  him,  of  any  newly  coined  word 
that  he  can  press  into  his  service  for  the  portrayal  of  half 
and  quarter  tints.  To  the  same  class  belongs  also  the 
large  guild  of  popular  writers  whose  aim  is  either  to  de 
scribe  the  life  of  the  people  or  to  exercise  some  influence 
upon  them  for  a  purpose.  In  order  to  make  themselves 
easily  understood  they  designedly  ignore  the  laws  of  cul- 
tivated or  even  of  correct  speech.  It  would  be  wholly  out 
of  place  to  cite  as  models  of  good  German  such  authors  as 
Hebel,  Gotthelf  or  Rosegger.  The  first  of  these,  a  writer 
of  remarkable  merit,  employed  almost  exclusively  as  the 
vehicle  of  expression,  the  Alemanian  dialect ;  the 
second  made  use  of  several  Austrian  dialects,  while  the 
third,  whose  real  name  was  Bitzins  wrote  for  the  most  part 
in  the  German  of  the  Bernese  Swiss.  In  the  writings  of 
scholars  we  often  find  an  intentional  neglect  of  style. 
There  was  a  time  when  it  was  regarded  as  somewhat  "of  a 
reproach  among  the  learned  to  write  well.  He  who  at- 
tached much  importance  to  elegance  of  diction  was  liable 
to  the  charge  of  superficiality,  though  it  needs  to  be  said 
thai:  this  state  of  affairs  prevailed  hardly  anywhere  except 
in  Germany.  Fortunately,  this  opinion  is  losing  ground 
more  and  more,  so  that  the  modern  historians  are  scarcely 
less  careful  of  their  manner  of  writing  than  of  the' matter 
they  use.  It  has  come  to  be  regarded  as  an  essential  quali- 
fication of  the  historian  that  he  shall  combine  artistic  skill 
in  the  use  of  language  with  thoroughness  of  research. 
Accordingly  the  prose  of  writers  like  Ranke,  Gregorovius, 
Hausrath  and  Treitschke  is  almost  a  model  of  excellence. 
It  may  surprise  the  reader  that  the  works  of  the  classical 
German  writers — Lessing,  Schiller  and  Goethe — are  not 


100 

placed  in  the  front  rank  in  point  of  style.  The  reason  is 
plain :  it  is  inadmissible  to  set  up  as  models  for  contem- 
poraries, the  works  of  writers  who  belonged  to  a  past  age. 
A  careful  examination  will  make  it  clear  that  the  process 
of  development  in  language  has  carried  us  a  considerable 
distance  beyond  the  literary  form  they  employed  for  the 
expression  of  their  thoughts.  This  is  more  particularly 
true  of  Lessing,  but  it  must  also  be  said  of  Schiller  and 
Goethe  that  we  can  hardly  open  a  page  of  their  writings 
without  finding  words  and  phrases  that  have  a  somewhat 
foreign  look.  It  may  seem  a  little  discouraging  to  find 
that  the  clearness  after  which  we  are  told  to  strive  in 
writing  will  soon  count  for  little  or  nothing.  Nevertheless 
this  changing  fashion  in  language  will  no  more  justify  us 
in  neglecting  the  proprieties  of  form  than  the  mutability 
of  social  observances  excuses  us  from  paying  any  attention 
to  them.  There  is  however  a  large  element  of  perma- 
nence in  literary  work  that  fulfills  the  highest  require- 
ments of  literary  art.  It  is  not  probable  that  the  time  will 
ever  come  when  any  nation  will  permit  its  masterpieces  to 
sink  into  neglect.  On  the  contrary,  it  is  the  excellence  of 
its  style  that  keeps  alive  many  a  work  of  which  the  con- 
tents have  ceased  to  be  of  general  interest.  Not  unfre- 
quently  it  is  possible  for  us  to  anticipate  the  clburse  of  de- 
velopment that  a  language  will  take.  The  most  careful 
observer  even  when  possessed  of  the  keenest  sense  of  the 
beauties  of  style  will  not  always  be  able  to  determine  in- 
fallibly which  of  two  or  more  verbal  forms  or  phrases  is 
entitled  to  the  preference.  In  the  struggle  between  the 
old  and  the  new  there  must  always  be  times  when  two 
forces  are  in  equilibrium ;  when  for  two  different  modes 
of  expression,  two  equally  weighty  authorities  may  be 
cited.  Under  such  circumstances,  what  is  one  to  do? 
Regard  for  clearness  will  not  solve  the  difficulty,  and  so 
we  must  project  the  present  into  the  future.  In  this  case 
as  in  many  others,  the  historian  of  the  past  may  become 


A  History  of  the  German  Language  101 

the  prophet  of  the  future.  One  who  has  carefully  studied 
the  development  of  a  language  in  the  past. is  often  able  to 
predict  which  of  two  forms  equally  correct  at  the  present 
time  will  ultimately  displace  the  other.  If  the  question 
were  asked,  for  instance,  whether  one  ought  to  say  des 
Bauers  or  des  Bauern,  the  thorough  student  of  German 
might  with  confidence  predict  that  the  former  will  in  the 
not  distant  future  be  regarded  as  the  only  correct  termina- 
tion. Haifa  century  and  more  ago  a  number  of  English 
words  were  accented  on  the  penult  or  antepenult ;  but  the 
tendency  of  the  accent  is  regressive  so  that  it  now  rests 
one  or  even  two  syllables  nearer  the  beginning  of  the 
word.  It  is  therefore  safe  to  assume  that  others  will  fol- 
low the  same  law.  Of  course,  these  are  criteria  that  not 
many  persons  are  able  to  use  and  there  are  comparatively 
few  instances  in  which  a  safe  prediction  is  possible.  It 
only  remains  then  for  us  to  recognize  with  philosophical 
resignation  the  uncertainty  of  the  situation.  It  is  folly  to 
make  demands  upon  language  to  which  in  the  nature  of 
things  it  can  not  respond ;  we  must  allow  to  it  the  free- 
dom of  development  which  we  grant  to  every  living  or- 
ganism and  deny  to  no  other  product  of  the  human  soul. 

UNIFORMITY  IX  THE  SPOKEN  LANGUAGE. 

It  has  been  shown  that  there  are  a  number  of  points 
upon  which  the  N.  H.  G.  has  not  yet  reached  the  stage  of 
complete  uniformity  and  regularity.  It  is  now  proposed 
to  call  attention  to  some  additional  facts  that  point  in  the 
same  direction.  The  uniformity  thus  far  spoken  of,  exists 
in  reality  only  on  paper  and  has  to  do  only  with  reading 
matter.  The  advance  that  has  been  made  toward  securing 
unity  in  the  spoken  language  is  still  in  its  inception.  But 
the  movement  in  this  direction,  though  only  fairly  begun, 
is  destined  to  continue  with  accelerating  speed  and  the 
dialects  are  doomed  to  extinction.  Whether  this  is  to  be 
looked  upon  with  regret  or  with  satisfaction  is  not  a  mat- 


102  A  History  of  the  German  Language 

ter  to  be  here  considered ;  the  result  is  inevitable  and  to 
contend  against  it,  useless.  The  objects  for  which  language 
exists  imperatively  demand  the  removal  of  this  obstacle 
to  facility  of  communication.  Under  existing  conditions 
the  peasants  of  Westphalia  and  the  herdsmen  of  Switzer- 
land, when  each  uses  his  vernacular,  comprehend  each 
other  as  little  as  the  French  understand  the  Chinese, 
though  both  the  former  speak  the  same^language. 

The  most  potent  agency  in  this  mission  of  civilization 
is  the  school.  Here  the  attention  of  both  eye  and  ear  is 
persistently  directed  to  the  language  as  it  is  written  and 
printed.  The  living  word  as  it  is  heard  in  the  pulpit  like- 
wise exercises  an  influence,  though  not  a  powerful  one,  be- 
cause its  chief  object  is  comprehensibility,  and  it  accord- 
ingly conforms  to  local  conditions.  There  are,  however, 
localities  where  the  sway  of  dialect  is  still  comparatively 
unbroken.  In  the  Canton  of  Bern  a  few  years  ago, 
ministers  still  preached  in  the  local  vernacular.  Still 
weaker  is  the  influence  of  the  stage,  because  only  a 
small  part  of  the  population  comes  within  its  sphere.  Of 
great  importance  is  the  habit  of  reading  which  is  simply 
an  intensifying  and  continuing  of  the  work  begun  in  the 
school,  a  habit  that  is  greatly  encouraged  by  the  issue  of 
numerous  periodicals.  The  facilities  for  easy  intercourse 
between  different  parts  of  the  country  do  a  good  deal  toward 
obliterating  dialectic  differences.  In  the  not  distant  past, 
persons  could  easily  be  found  who  had  never  passed  a  day 
beyond  the  sound  of  their  local  vernacular.  At  the  present 
time  it  would  be  hard  to  find  a  school-boy  whose  travels 
have  not  extended  farther.  The  same  causes  likewise 
make  a  change  of  residence  comparatively  easy.  Re- 
movals from  one  place  to  another  are,  accordingly,  more 
frequent  than  formerly  and  are  often  to  a  greater  distance. 
The  slight  divergences  between  the  language  spoken  in 
the  different  parts  of  the  United  States  are  largely  due  to 
the  easy  means  of  intercommunication.  Here  too,  one 


A  History  of  the  German  Language  103 

may  see  to  what  extent  the  least  visited  sections  have  the 
most  marked  peculiarities  of  speech  and  to  what  extent 
they  are  persistent. 

The  relation  existing  between  written  and  spoken  lan- 
guage may  be  of  various  kinds.  The  majority  of  persons 
employ  their  native  folk-speech  in  conversation.  Many 
who  are  able  to  understand  the  language  of  books  are  un- 
able to  use  it.  There  is,  besides,  a  tolerably  large  contin- 
gent that  can  understand  only  their  local  vernacular. 
Those  persons  are  rare  who  use  only  the  written  language  ; 
and  they  are  for  the  most  part  such  as  have  acquired  the 
German  later  in  life.  Among  native  Germans  this  can 
only  be  the  case  where  there  is  below  them  no  numerous 
and  comparatively  uneducated  populace.  This  is  the  sit- 
uation of  the  Germans  in  the  Baltic  provinces  of  Russia. 
Among  persons  who  use  both  the  spoken  and  the  written 
language,  there  are  many  gradations.  Comparatively  few 
speak  in  pure  dialect,  and  the  number  of  those  who  are 
wholly  free  from  any  trace  of  dialect  is  equally  small. 
Usually  there  is  a  mixture  of  both,  with  the  preponder- 
ance in  favor  of  the  one  or  the  other.  The  unconscious 
oscillation  between  one  and  the  other  frequently  produces 
a  comic  effect  and  has  even  been  represented  in  literature. 
Fritz  Reuter  is  perhaps  the  best  known  writer  who  has 
made  use  of  it.  The  mixture  is  often  different  in  the 
same  individual ;  or  it  may  vary  in  the  same  class  of  per- 
sons, or  in  the  different  provinces  of  the  German  empire. 
In  conversation  with  a  stranger,  a  German  is  likely  to  dis- 
card local  peculiarities  as  much  as  possible  ;  in  familiar  in- 
tercourse with  an  acquaintance  he  will  probably  use  the 
vernacular  most  freely.  The  more  serious  the  subject  of 
discussion  the  nearer  is  he  likely  to  approach  the  language 
of  books.  On  the  platform,  in  public  lectures,  in  the  pro- 
fessor's chair  the  hearers  do  not  readily  tolerate  the  use  of 
dialect.  In  addressing  a  superior,  the  language  of  books 
is  more  likely  to  be  employed  than  to  an  inferior.  The 


104  A  History  of  the  German  Language 

language  of  deliberation  will  usually  be  more  correct  than 
that  of  passion  or  exhaustion.  The  educated  man  is  less 
apt  to  use  a  dialect  than  the  illiterate ;  the  man  who  has 
traveled  extensively,  than  he  who  has  spent  most  of 
his  life  at  home ;  the  dweller  in  the  city,  than  the  in- 
habitant of  a  rural  district ;  the  courtier,  than  the  plain 
citizen. 

Within  the  territory  of  the  L,.  G.  pure  H.  G.  is  much 
more  frequently  heard  than  in  other  portions  of  the  Em- 
pire. Dialectic  peculiarities,  are  most  common  and  most 
noticeable  in  the  higher  classes  of  Swabia,  Bavaria,  Aus- 
tria and  Switzerland.  In  fact,  it  is  rare  to  find  a  person 
whose  language  is  not  more  or  less  tainted.  In  some 
parts  of  Switzerland  even  the  proceedings  of  the  courts 
are  conducted  in  the  local  speech  of  the  district.  The 
spirit  of  republican  independence  makes  the  people  of 
this  country  loth  to  conform,  even  in  language,  to  the  rules 
prescribed  by  those  who  live  under  a  monarchial  govern- 
ment. The  feeling  of  local  importance  that  one  may  find 
in  all  parts  of  Germany,  but  more  especially  in  the  south, 
is  here  intensified  by  the  difference  in  the  form  of  govern- 
ment. While  the  speech  of  wider  areas  has  certain  gen- 
eral characteristics  in  common,  there  are  other  character- 
istics that  pertain  to  narrower  circles  within  these.  In 
Basel  and  Bern,  to  speak  now  only  of  Switzerland,  the 
use  of  local  dialects  is  more  common  than  in  other  parts. 
This  is  doubtless  owing  to  certain  native  peculiarities  of 
the  inhabitants.  It  may  be  that  in  one  locality  more  im- 
portance is  attached  to  external  form  than  in  another ;  in 
another,  the  people  may  incline  to  local  isolation  ;  while  in 
still  another,  the  language  may  be  tenaciously  adhered  to 
because  it  is  an  inheritance  that  has  descended  to  them 
from  their  ancestors  and  which  they  feel  ought  to  be 
transmitted  to  posterity  as  little  impaired  as  possible. 
The  fact  that  the  people  of  North  Germany  generally 
speak  the  language  with  greater  purity  than  those  of  the 


A  History  of  the  German  Language  105 

South  is  to  be  attributed  in  part  to  the  greater  conservatism 
of  the  latter  and  in  part  to  the  wider  gap  that  exists  be- 
tween the  northern  vernacular  and  the  N.  H.  G. 

Wherever  the  written  German  is  understood  the  High 
or  South  German  dialects  are,  in  a  measure  at  least,  in- 
telligible ;  this  can  not  be  said  of  the  Low  German  dia- 
lects. There  is,  accordingly,  a  stronger  motive  for  the  na- 
tive of  North  Germany  to  learn  the  literary  language, 
than  there  is  for  the  native  of  other  parts.  He  must  con- 
form as  far  as  possible  to  the  language  of  books  in  order 
to  be  understood  even  by  his  own  countrymen  who  have 
not  learned  his  particular  dialect.  Again,  it  is  easier  to 
learn  an  entirely  new  language  and  to  use  it  in  its  purity, 
if  it  is  sharply  distinct  from  that  to  which  we  have  been 
accustomed,  than  it  is  to  learn  one  that  deviates  but 
slightly.  This  statement  is  subject  to  some  exceptions, 
but  is  true  in  the  main. 

The  relative  ease  with  which  we  pass  from  the  use  of 
one  language  to  another  will  receive  some  additional 
elucidation  if  we  look  somewhat  more  closely  at  the  way 
in  which  the  literary  German  and  folk-speech  are  inter- 
mingled. Single  H.  G.  words  find  earliest  and  readiest 
entrance  into  the  dialects,  because  in  such  cases  the  differ- 
ence between  meum  and  tuum  is  clearly  marked.  Much 
later  and  rarer  is  the  introduction  of  H.  G.  phrases  and 
expressions.  There  exists,  however,  another  considera- 
tion. H.  G.  words  even  in  dialectic  guise  are  more  easily 
understood  than  phrases  or  sentences  when  used  in  the 
place  of  dialect-words.  But  not  all  H.  G.  word-forms  find 
equally  ready  admission  into  folk-speech ;  the  more  fre- 
quently a  dialect  word  is  used  the  greater  the  difficulty  of 
displacing  it.  It  happens  quite  frequently  that  persons 
who  attach  much  importance  to  purity  of  speech  inad- 
vertently let  slip  the  dialectic  forms  of  ist  and  nicht, 
These  words  being  among  the  most  frequently  used  in  all 
languages,  their  pronunciation  acquired  in  childhood  be- 
8 


106  A  History  of  the  German  Language 

comes  so  confirmed  by  habit  that  it  is  almost  the  last  to  be 
exchanged  for  another. 

But  most  difficult  of  all  is  to  observe  carefully  the  rules 
for  the  pronunciation  of  particular  sounds.  This  is  so  be- 
cause, in  the  first  place,  that  utterance  which  has  been  ac- 
quired in  connection  with  the  printed  page  is  not  clearly 
indicated  by  the  characters  to  which  it  is  attached. 
Whether  st  is  to  be  pronounced  as  it  is  written,  or  as  scht; 
whether  ch  is  to  be  sounded  as  in  Bach  or  as  in  Bache,  can 
not  be  learned  by  the  eye  alone.  A  second  obstacle  is 
often  interposed  by  the  dialect  when  it  makes  no  differ- 
ence in  pronunciation  where  one  exists  in  the  literary  lan- 
guage :  the  latter  has  two  distinct  sounds  where  the 
former  has  but  one.  Persons  who  are  in  the  habit  of 
using  a  dialect  observe  that  those  who  speak  the  H.  G. 
employ  two  different  sounds,  of  which  one  accords  with 
their  vernacular  while  the  other  does  not.  But  the  mem- 
ory often  fails  to  keep  them  distinct  and  an  uncertainty 
arises  as  to  when  the  one  is  to  be  used  and  when  the  other. 
The  result  is  that  the  dialect  sound  is  frequently  carried 
into  the  H.  G.,  where  it  does  not  belong.  Few  things  are 
more  difficult  to  acquire  and  to  remember  accurately  for 
any  considerable  length  of  time  than  a  sound  or  a  tone. 
This  failure  of  memory  often  produces  curious  linguistic 
effects.  The  Alemannian,  for  instance,  knows  that  he 
should  sometimes  use  an  ei  in  the  H.  G.  where  his  ver- 
nacular has  z\  as  Weile  for  Wil,  or  schleiche  for  schliche. 
But  by  following  the  analogy  of  the  case  too  far  he  is  apt 
to  say  veil  when  he  should  say  viel,  or  ich  verseichere  sie 
when  he  means  ich  versichere  sie;  and  so  on.  The 
Swabian  pronounces  the  H.  G.  sind,  Wind  as  if  printed 
send  and  Wend;  and  misled  like  his  Alemannian  brother 
by  a  false  analogy  he  utters  Mensch  as  if  it  were  written 
Minsch.  Or,  again,  because  the  H.  G.  gehabt,  geholt  are 
pronounced  in  his  native  dialect  like  ghabt  and  kabt,  or 
gholt  and  kolt ;  he  in  like  manner  introduces  an  e  after  the 


A  History  of  the  German  Language  107 

initial  g,  thus  making  Gehockeler  out  of  Cockier  (cock). 
The  Austrian  utters  final  -er  almost  as  if  written  -a,  say- 
ing, for  example,  IVmda,  when  he  means  Winter.  In  like 
manner  then  he  is  apt  to  say  in  Sommer  when  he  means 
in  Summa.  In  the  dialect  of  Leipzig  and  vicinity  au  is 
pronounced  like  o,  so  that  lazifen^  for  example,  becomes 
lofen.  Accordingly  when  the  natives  want  to  say  Ofen 
they  are  apt  to  call  it  Aufen,  and  because  Knopfloch  ( but- 
ton-hole) and  Knoblauch  (garlic)  are  pronounced  sub- 
stantially alike  in  their  vernacular,  they  confound  the 
sounds  where  the  result  is  ridiculous:  instead  of  say- 
ing Knopflochseide  they  may  say,  when  trying  to  speak 
H.  G.,  Knoblauchseide .  The  same  uncertainty  and  con- 
fusion appears  when  a  native  Low  German  tries  to  use  the 
H.  G.  mir  and  mich,  dir  and  dich ;  for  in  a  large  portion  of 
L.  G.  territory  the  dative  and  accusative  of  these  two 
words  is  simply  mi  and  di.  It  is  only  those  that  have 
been  well  educated  who  are  in  all  cases  able  to  decide 
quickly  which  of  the  two  terminations  is  to  be  employed. 
Mistakes  of  this  kind  are  likely  to  occur  whenever  and 
wherever  there  is  considerable  difference  between  the 
speech  of  the  educated  and  the  uneducated  ;  that  is,  where 
a  language  of  books  exists  along  with  one  that  is  only 
spoken.  We  find  persons  who  having  learned  that  it  is 
incorrect  to  say  "talkin',''  "planting"  and  the  like  will 
carry  the  analogy  too  far  and  say  "  chicking  ''  or  "  plant- 
ing" when  they  mean  chicken  and  plantain.  Sometimes 
these  incorrect  forms  finally  make  their  way  into  the  lit- 
erary language,  as,  for  example,  chickens,  which  is  a  double 
plural.  The  singular  is  chick,  and  the  plural  should  end 
in  -en  like  that  of  ox.  Compare  also  the  plurals  housen, 
children,  brethren  and  even  "  sistern."  There  is  hardly 
any  doubt  that  a  similar  mental  process  has  unconsciously 
been  an  important  factor  in  giving  forms  to  many  German 
words  that  it  would  be  difficult  to  account  for  in  any  other 
way.  We  have  here  simply  a  process  that  is  of  frequent 


108  A  History  of  the  German  Language 

occurrence  in  all  languages,  because  the  human  inind  acts 
in  much  the  same  way.  It  is  certain  that  a  number  of 
pure  H.  G.  words  are  the  result  of  earlier  false  analogies. 
Loffel,  ergotzen,  loschen  were  in  the  M.  H.  G.  leffel,  ergetzen 
and  leschen;  but  because  in  many  dialects  the  H.  G.  e  and 
o  stood  for  the  same  sound  they  became  confounded  in  the 
course  of  time,  and  usage  finally  settled  upon  the  wrong 
one.  Since  the  mistake  has  become  known  efforts  are 
being  made  to  correct  the  error  and  restore  the  correct  or- 
thography. The  proverb  sein  Schdfchen  ins  Trockene 
bnngen  has  arisen  from  the  L.  G.  sein  Schepken,  etc.  In 
this  dialect  Schepken  corresponds  to  the  H.  G.  Schdfchen 
and  Schiffchen;  but  the  wrong  word  was  transferred  be- 
cause the  proverb  has  reference  to  putting  the  ship  not  the 
sheep  into  a  dry  place.  In  those  parts  of  Germany  where 
little  is  known  of  ships  and  much  of  sheep,  the  mistake 
was  almost  certain  to  be  made. 

In  many  instances  when  wrong  forms,  judged  by  the 
H.  G.  standard,  are  used  they  are  not  the  result  of  an  at- 
tempt to  reproduce  the  correct  one,  because  the  speaker  is 
incapable  of  recognizing  the  difference  between  the  two ; 
or  if  he  recognizes  the  difference  when  made  by  the  vocal 
organs  of  another  he  makes  none  when  he  attempts  to  pro- 
nounce the  words  himself.  The  Saxons  and  Swabians  are 
to  a  considerable  extent  afflicted  with  a  sort  of  deafness 
which  prevents  them  from  distinguishing  between  p  and  b 
or  t  and  d.  It  may  thus  occur  that  ein  typischer  character 
becomes  ein  diebischer  character.  A  lexicon  of  the  Swabian 
"has  no  words  beginning  with  t  and  p,  their  places  being 
occupied  by  d  and  b.  So  far  as  the  p  as  related  to  t  is 
concerned  the  Gothic  prototype  is  preserved,  as  there  are 
few,  if  any  pure  Gothic  words  beginning  with  this  letter. 
In  the  case  of  the  initial  t  as  related  to  d  the  latter  in  most 
cases  preserves  the  Gothic  sound  ;  which  is  also  retained 
in  English.  The  Gothic  dauhtar,  dags,  daigs  are  the 
English  'daughter,'  'day'  and  'dough,'  and  the  Swabian 


A  History  of  the  German  Language  109 

Dochter,  Dag  and  Deig  or  even  Doag  are  represented  in 
the  N.  H.  G.  by  Tochter,  Tag  and  Teig.  How  tenaciously 
the  dialects  resist  the  displacement  of  some  sounds  is  evi- 
dent from  the  fact  that  for  several  letters  and  combinations 
of  letters  there  is  no  recognized  pronunciation  to  this  day. 
It  is  perhaps  admissible  to  say  that  the  L.  G.  pronuncia- 
tion of  sp  and  st,  which  is  in  accord  with  the  English,  is 
incorrect,  and  that  these  letters  should  be  sounded  as  if 
written  schp  and  scht.  On  the  other  hand  the  pronuncia- 
tion of  g  varies  considerably.  Sometimes  it  is  sounded 
like  j  (Eng.  y),  sometimes  like  ch,  sometimes  like  the 
English  letter  of  the  same  name  before  a,  o  and  u. 
None  is  universally  recognized  as  correct.  A  similar  state 
of  affairs  exists  in  regard  to  final  ng.  In  some  localities  it 
is  sounded  as  if  written  nk,  so  that  Gang,  Sang  become 
Gank,  Sank;  in  others,  it  has  the  same  sound  when  final 
that  it  has  elsewhere  in  a  word.  The  sound  represented 
by  the  letter  r  is  produced  in  some  districts  with  the  tip 
of  the  tongue ;  in  others,  with  the  palate.  Sometimes  it 
is  made  to  resemble  closely  the  sound  of  eh,  or  even  a. 
Professor  Vischer  recently  published  a  humorous  article 
in  "Gegenwart"  under  the  caption  "Sufferings  of  the 
wretched  letter  r  during  its  travels  through  Ger- 
many." In  South  Germany  s  is  pronounced  sharp  like 
the  English  initial  s ;  but  in  North  Germany  like  s 
in  '  houses.'  Some  of  the  differences  that  prevail  in 
the  pronunciation  of  the  vowels  and  diphthongs  have 
already  been  pointed  out.  The  divergence  in  the 
pronunciation  of  ^  is  perhaps  of  little  importance 
and  is  doubtless  not  generally  observed.  The  others 
are  of  greater  consequence  and  are  liable  to  lead  to 
a  misconception  of  the  meaning  of  the  speaker.  They 
ought  therefore  as  far  as  possible  to  be  removed.  So  far 
as  the  r  is  concerned  there  are  physical  obstacles  in  the 
way ;  but  none  in  the  case  of  g.  It  is  well  therefore  to 
follow  the  example  of  the  German  stage  which  is  almost 


110  A  History  of  the  German  Language 

a  unit  in  pronouncing  it,  at  least  initial  and  medial,  like 
the  English  g  in  such  words  as  game,  go  and  gun. 

SOME    DISADVANTAGES   OF  UNIFORMITY. 

Uniformity  in  spoken  and  written  German,  so  far  as  it 
exists  at  present  is  the  result  of  a  conscious  effort  and  the 
outgrowth   of   internal   necessity.       It  has   nevertheless 
brought  with  it  some  disadvantages.     So  long  as  a  dialect 
was  the  mode  of  speech   employed  by  everybody,  each 
writer  was  at  liberty  to  use  that  particular  name  to  desig- 
nate an  object  or  an  idea  which  it  had  in  the  vernacular. 
All  newly  coined  words  could  forthwith  be  transferred  to 
paper  or  book.     As  soon  however  as  a  literary  language 
came  into  existence  this  could  no  longer  be  done  because 
such  a  language  sought  general  currency  wherever  German 
was  used.     The  needs  of  a  larger  constituency  had  thence- 
forth to  be  kept  in  view ;  and  only  such  words  and  forms 
of  expression  were  likely  to  be  understood  as  had  already 
come  into  use  in  one  way  and  another.     The  vocabulary 
of  a  speaker  or  writer  is  confined  within  somewhat  circum- 
scribed limits.     The  more  abstract  and  colorless  the  sig- 
nification of  a  word  the  larger  is  the  number  of  dialects 
in  which  it  occurs;  the  more  sensuous  and  concrete  its 
meaning  the  wider  the  divergences  in  the  various  dialects. 
It  is  for  concepts  of  this  class  that  it  is  very  difficult  to 
find  designations  that  will   obtain   universal  acceptance 
wherever  the  language  is  spoken.     But  there  is  another 
obstacle  in  the  way.     The  nature  of  the  subjects  discussed 
in  print  necessarily  limits,  to  some  extent,  the  vocabulary 
that  can  be  used,  and  the  entire  body  of  words  is  drawn 
upon  somewhat  unevenly.     The  portion,  therefore,  that 
most  fully  represents  local  diversity  is  the  least  used  in 
literature.     Given  a  language  in  common  use  among  the 
educated  only,  and  it  follows  as  a  matter  of  course  that  ob- 
jects have  a  less  general  interest  for   this  class  if  they  sup- 
ply purely  physical  needs  or  if  they  are  closely  identified 


A  History  of  the  German  Language  111 

with  the  trivial  concerns  of  the  every  day  life  of  those  liv- 
ing at  the  other  end  of  the  social  scale.  This  statement 
applies  with  particular  force  to  the  German  literature  of 
the  seventeenth  and  eighteenth  centuries.  In  fact,  the  lit- 
erature of  Germany  can  hardly  be  called  German  litera- 
ture. As  has  already  been  pointed  out  scholars  wrote 
chiefly  in  Latin,  and  later  in  French ;  and  when  they  con- 
descended to  use  their  vernacular  they  expressed  them- 
selves very  clumsily.  Where  a  uniform  language  is  em- 
ployed over  a  wide  extent  of  territory  there  are  many 
words  that  can  not  be  used  because  they  have  only  a  local 
existence  and  many  things  that  can  not  be  spoken  of  be- 
cause they  have  no  name  that  is  universally  understood. 
This  is  true  of  a  number  of  plants  and  animals ;  of  articles 
of  food ;  of  utensils  for  domestic  use  and  in  agriculture ; 
as  well  as  of  many  acts  that  are  essential  to  the  prepara- 
tion and  use  of  these  objects.  It  needs  but  the  cursory 
examination  of  a  dictionary  intended  for  general  use  to 
convince  one  that  it  lacks  a  considerable  number  of  words 
in  actual  or  daily  use  among  the  people  whose  language 
it  aims  to  embody.  Much  of  what  is  known  in  English 
as  slangy  but  for  which  the  German  language  has  no  exact 
equivalent,  is  excluded.  One  may  be  familiar  with  the 
language  used  at  times  by  almost  all  Germans  and  yet  find 
in  every  section  of  their  country  many  new  words  that  he 
will  be  unable  to  comprehend  or  old  ones  used  in  a  sense 
unfamiliar  to  him. 

It  may  be  stated  here  because  it  affords  a  familiar  example  of  a 
similar  fact  that  nearly  all  our  so-called  Americanisms  are  not  words 
newly  coined  here,  but  English  words  used  in  a  different  sense  from 
that  which  they  have  in  the  mother-country. 

It  is  also  to  be  noted  that  the  literary  language  has, 
strictly  speaking,  no  sympathy  with,  and  therefore  no 
designations  for,  the  small  and  trivial  mental  processes 
that  belong  to  the  daily  experiences  of  the  average  man, — 
for  the  words  that  express  anger  and  vexation,  for  curses 


112  A  History  of  the  German  Language 

and  terms  of  reproach,  for  exclamations  of  joy  and  pain, 
or  for  the  thousand  utterances  of  flattery  or  kindly  ap- 
proval. 

While  it  is  still  true  that  there  are  classes  of  concepts 
that  are  not  without  general  interest  yet  the  stock  of  words 
is  nevertheless  inadequate  for  their  accurate  designation. 
This  state  of  things  is  however  passing  away  gradually. 
The  great  interest  manifested  in  our  day  for  the  scientific 
investigation  of  the  most  trivial  phenomena  of  nature, — 
and  I  use  the  word  trivial  in  a  relative  sense — is  not  with- 
out its  influence  upon  the  study  of  the  speech  of  the 
most  ignorant  and  uncultivated.  This  interest  not  only 
has  a  tendency  to  elevate  those  who  stand  at  the  bottom 
of  the  social  scale  ;  but  since  there  will  always  remain 
those  who  can  not  be  raised,  it  descends  of  set  purpose  to 
their  level  in  order  to  study  social  life  in  its  lowest  forms. 
The  great  increase  in  the  size  of  our  modern  dictionaries 
is  the  outgrowth  of  a  desire  to  embody  in  them  every  vis- 
ible sign  that  has  ever  been  used  to  give  utterance  to  a 
thought  or  an  impression,  no  matter  when  or  by  whom. 
It  is  in  this  way  that  the  vocabulary  of  each  is  made  the 
common  property  of  all,  at  least  to  examine  and  study,  if 
not  to  use.  There  is  a  realm  in  which  the  living  folk- 
speech  gives  evidence  of  a  creative  power:  it  is  in  the  in- 
vention of  onomatopoetic  words  intended  to  designate  in- 
significant actions  and  sounds.  These  however  find  their 
way  into  literature  but  slowly,  or  not  at  all,  for  the  reason 
that  there  is  an  absence  of  sympathy  between  those  who 
use  the  language  of  books  and  those  who  do  not.  The 
progress  of  intelligence  as  manifested  in  the  creation  and 
development  of  a  uniform  literary  language  has  however 
done  a  good  deal  to  curtail  the  linguistic  material  at  its 
disposal  by  removing  its  modes  of  expression  from  the 
hearts  and  sympathies  of  the  common  people.  Nor  has  a 
reaction  been  wanting.  This  protest  against  a  language 
having  general  currency  has  found  expression  in  the  ere- 


A  History  of  the  German  Language  113 

ation  of  a  dialect  literature.  This  is  not  a  mere  play  and 
pastime,  the  amusement  of  such  vacant  hours  as  a  writer 
can  not  otherwise  fill  up.  It  has  a  deeper  significance. 
And  for  the  reason  that  it  fills  a  want  felt  by  the  human 
heart  it  will  probably  never  cease  to  exist.  When  literary 
form  is  given  to  discourse  in  dialect  there  is  not  seldom 
exhibited  the  phenomenon  which  has  been  characterized 
above  as  hyper-High  German.  Just  as  the  user  of  a  dia- 
lect often  expresses  himself  incorrectly  when  he  attempts 
the  H.  G.,  so  he  may  also  wrongly  transfer  his  H.  G.  into 
his  dialect.  A  very  common  L,.  G.  error  of  this  kind  is 
affixing  the  ending  -et  to  neuter  adjectives — en  grotet  Hus, 
en  level  Kind  for  ein  grosses  Haus,  em  liebes  Kind.  The 
pure  dialect  has  no  adjectives  terminating  in  -et. 

CHARACTERISTICS  OF    THE   NEW  HIGH  GERMAN. 

Having  now  concluded  our  observations  upon  the  ten- 
dencies toward  uniformity  in  the  German,  and  their  re- 
sults, it  is  proper,  finally,  to  glance  at  the  constitu- 
ent elements  of  the  unified  language  and  at  those  special 
characteristics  that  mark  the  N.  H.  G.  as  temporally  and 
topographically  distinct  from  other  speech-unities.  The 
reader  should,  however,  keep  constantly  in  mind  that  what 
is  habitually  designated  as  N.  H.  G.  is  not  a  homogeneous 
whole.  Not  only  do  the  different  periods  of  the  N.  H.  G. 
show  different  stages  in  the  process  of  unification,  but  the 
language  apart  from  these  gradations,  has,  during  the  en- 
tire N.  H.  G.  period  advanced  step  by  step.  The  language 
of  Luther  was  no  longer  that  of  the  German  classics  ;  that 
of  the  classic  writers  is  not  the  German  of  to-day.  But 
the  character  of  the  tongue  as  a  whole  has  remained  substan- 
tially the  same  :  it  is  a  mixture  of  various  dialects  of  which 
the  chief  ingredients  are  those  of  Middle  Germany.  Its 
vowel  system  is  mainly  that  of  the  middle  region,  but  its 
consonants  are  for  the  most  part  Bavaro- Austrian.  Neither 
in  the  forms  of  the  individual  words  nor  in  their  combina- 


114  A  History  of  the  German  Language 

tions  is  there  much  difference  among  the  dialects  repre- 
sented in  the  N.  H.  G. :  the  gender  of  the  nouns  is  M.  G., 
not  Upper  G.  In  the  dialects  belonging  to  the  latter 
region  we  find  der  Backen,  der  Butter,  der  Trauben;  but 
in  M.  G.  and  also  in  the  N.  H.  G.  these  words  appear  as 
die  Backe,  die  Butter,  die  Traube.  A  number  of  other 
words  do  not  have  the  same  gender  in  Switzerland  and 
South  Germany  that  they  have  farther  north.  The  dif- 
ferent dialects  have  contributed  very  unequally  to  the  vo- 
cabulary of  the  N.  H.  G.,  though  here  again  Central  Ger- 
many predominates.  The  purely  U.  G.  contingent  is  very 
small.  Almost  the  only  words  from  this  region  that  have 
become  an  integral  part  of  the  written  tongue  are  the 
names  of  objects  that  are  found  here  exclusively,  and  per- 
tain to  mountainous  districts.  Among  these  are  Alp, 
Fluh,  Gletscher  (from  the  French  glacier),  Lawine  (from 
late  Latin  labina  and  related  to  labi),  Matte  and  Senn. 
Most  of  these  words  can  not  be  translated  into  Eng- 
lish. The  verbs  lugen  (perhaps  related  to  Eng.  look) 
and  staunen  are  of  Swiss  origin  though  in  common  use  in 
South  Germany.  The  contribution  of  North  Germany  to 
the  written  language  is  quite  large.  There  is  a  long  list 
of  words  relating  to  navigation,  to  life  along  and  on  the 
ocean.  Among  these  are  Brise,  Bucht,  Dune,  Hafen,  lich- 
ten  (lift,  make  light  the  anchor),  Steven,  Tau,  Wrack,  etc. 
The  connection  of  some  of  these  words  with  their  English 
equivalents  is  evident  at  a  glance.  But  there  are  other 
terms  that  come  from  the  same  quarter,  such  as  echt  from 
an  older  ehaft,  that  which  pertains  to  e  (Ehe),  that  is,  law, 
right.  The  change  from//  to  cht  is  a  characteristic  of  the 
L.  G.  as  may  be  seen  in  Schluft  for  Schtucht,  sanft  for 
Sacht,  etc.  Further  Fracht,  Harke,  Kneipen,  Knicken,  and 
many  more.  In  some  cases  both  the  H.  G.  and  L.  G.  words 
have  gained  currency,  as  Brunnen  and  Born,  feist  and  fett, 
sanft  and  sachte,  siihnen  and  (ver)  sbhnen,  Waffen  and  Wap- 
pen.  The  points  of  difference  between  the  pronunciation 


A  History  of  the  German  Language  115 

of  the  N.  H.  G.  and  the  M.  G.  will  be  discussed  further  on. 
It  may  be  stated  here,  however,  that  it  relates  chiefly  to 
the  long  vowels.  In  place  of  the  older  zit,  wit,  hus,  musy 
hiute,  hute  the  modern  German  has  Zeit,  weit,  Haus, 
Maus,  heute,  Leute.  The  differences  between  the  etymol- 
ogy and  syntax  of  the  two  periods  are  less  regular  and 
consistent.  Some  examples  will  be  given  later  in  the 
book. 

It  has  already  been  remarked  that  the  material  which 
constitutes  what  we  call  language  is  a  traditional  inheri- 
tance received  by  each  generation  which  it  in  turn  transmits 
to  posterity  with  very  slight  changes.  We  learn  our  vernac- 
ular from  hearing  it  spoken  and  not  from  the  printed 
character.  When  speaking  of  language  it  is  important  to 
keep  in  mind  its  two-fold  nature :  as  a  series  of  vocal  ut- 
terances that  impress  themselves  on  the  mind  through  the 
sense  of  hearing,  or  as  a  number  of  characters  that  reach 
it  through  the  sense  of  sight.  It  is  the  gradual  changes 
through  which  the  words  that  constitute  a  spoken  lan- 
guage passes  that  it  is  proposed  to  consider  here.  The 
first  part  of  this  book  has  shown  that  a  great  many  differ- 
ences exist  within  what  is  called  the  German  language. 
It  changes  with  times  and  places,  but  differs  also  accord- 
ing to  the  social  position  of  those  who  use  it.  We  have 
now  to  examine  somewhat  more  closely  into  the  nature 
and  character  of  these  variations.  The  attempt  has  been 
made  to  represent  graphically  these  varieties  by  compar- 
ing words  to  stones  which  a  brook  or  a  river  carries  along 
with  it  and  which  thus  gradually  become  more  and  more 
abraded  and  less  and  like  their  original  form.  In  this 
metaphor  the  flowing  stream  is  intended  to  represent  cur- 
rent usage ;  but  the  comparison  is  radically  erroneous.  A 
word  is  not  a  thing  which  after  it  is  once  coined  continues 
to  exist  forever  afterward.  It  is  an  activity,  an  event. 
And  this  event  consists  in  the  simultaneous  occurrence  of 
a  movement  of  the  soul  and  a  sound  produced  by  a  move- 


116  A  History  of  the  German  Language 

ment  of  the  organs  of  speech,  so  that,  briefly  expressed,  a 
mental  concept  and  a  vocal  sound  are  combined.  This 
combination  is  not  under  all  circumstances  of  the  same 
kind.  The  number  of  intuitions  inhering  in  the  con- 
sciousness is  dependent  upon  the  number  of  impressions 
made  upon  the  mind  of  the  speaker  and  upon  those  with 
whom  he  comes  into  conversation.  The  narrower  the 
social  circle  to  which  a  person  belongs,  the  lower  his  grade 
of  culture,  the  more  circumscribed  will  be  the  range  of  his 
intuitions.  The  factory  hand  and  the  peasant  need  a  com- 
paratively small  number  of  words  to  satisfy  their  linguistic 
wants,  while  on  the  other  hand  the  scholar  and  the  poet 
find  several  thousand  barely  sufficient.  The  more  unusual 
a  man's  occupation,  the  farther  he  is  removed  from  the 
ordinary  affairs  of  the  mass  of  mankind  the  more  singular 
is  his  vocabulary.  The  German  language  contains  a  long 
list  of  art-terms  that  constitutes  a  kind  of  separate  speech 
for  the  use  of  artists  and  other  persons  interested  in  art. 
The  merchant,  the  fisherman,  the  beekeeper,  the  miner, 
the  sailor  and  the  hunter,  have  each  a  vocabulary  peculiar 
to  their  craft.  The  novice  who  is  in  process  of  initiation 
into  the  mysteries  of  these  occupations  is  compelled  to 
acquire  a  new  language  to  correspond  to  the  new  concepts 
called  into  existence  in  his  mind.  The  great  body  of  con- 
cepts embodied  in  a  language  is  different  at  different 
times.  When  chivalry  and  the  feudal  system  began  to 
decay;  when  old  systems  of  jurisprudence  fell  into  dis- 
use ;  when  the  study  of  astrology  was  abandoned,  many 
words  were  irrevocably  doomed  to  oblivion. 

But  the  mere  existence  of  objects  in  the  external  world 
is  not  the  only  factor  in  the  formation  of  concepts  and 
their  corresponding  words ;  the  depth  and  therefore  the 
permanence  of  the  impression  made  by  such  objects  is  also 
of  great  importance.  The  character  of  this  impression  is 
in  turn  dependent  upon  the  relation  of  the  external  object 
to  man — whether  detrimental  or  beneficial.  Huge  ani- 


A  History  of  the  German  Language  117 

mals  and  large  trees,  those  animals  and  plants  that  are 
serviceable  to  man  for  food  and  clothing,  or  that  threaten 
his  life  by  their  voracity  or  by  their  poisonous  qualities 
received  names  long  before  the  tiny  bug  that  burrows  in 
the  earth  and  the  little  flower  that  blooms  in  the  depths 
of  the  forest.  And  so  It  conies  that  the  names  of  the 
larger  animals,  the  great  trees  of  the  forest,  and  the  most 
important  cereals  are  common  to  all  the  members  of  the 
Germanic  family.  Some  of  these,  such  as  wolf,  cow,  ox, 
birch,  beech,  alder,  barley  and  the  like  have  radically  the 
same  designations  in  other  branches  of  the  Indo  European 
family  of  languages.  On  the  other  hand  the  names  of 
flowers  and  insects  are  often  different  in  the  different  dia- 
lects of  the  same  tongue,  so  that  at  the  present  day  the 
zoologist  and  botanist  are  still  obliged  to  use  Latin  tech- 
nical terms  in  order  not  to  be  misunderstood.  We  may 
cite  as  instances  the  primula  elatior  (oxlip  primrose)  for 
which  the  German  has  about  sixty  names  and  the  colchium 
autumnale  (meadow  saffron)  some  fifty.  These  statements, 
though  made  with  primary  reference  to  the  proto-historic 
period  of  the  languages  here  under  consideration  are 
amply  confirmed  by  the  familiar  facts  of  daily  experience. 
Everybody  knows  the  names  of  the  larger  trees,  the  com- 
mon grasses  and  the  useful  animals,  but  hardly  one  person 
in  ten  thousand  recognizes  or  takes  any  interest  in  the  un- 
important forms  of  animal  and  vegetable  life  that  are 
about  us  wherever  we  may  be. 

The  stock  of  representative  images  varies  therefore  ac- 
cording to  different  individuals  and  groups  of  individuals. 
The  possible  number  is  still  further  increased  when  there 
is  a  choice  among  several  concepts :  the  same  person  may 
give  vocal  utterance  to  one  percept  in  one  way  and  to  an- 
other in  another ;  or  he  may  express  the  same  concept  in 
different  ways  at  different  times.  It  may  be  that  in  one 
case  the  language  with  which  he  is  familiar  already  con- 
tains in  its  vocabulary  the  word  by  means  of  which  he 


118  A  History  of  the  German  Language 

may  express  his  percept  and  this  word  or  term  may  come 
into  the  consciousness  of  the  speaker  and  suffice  for  his 
momentary  needs.     He  then  voices  his  percept  in  exactly 
the  same  way,  that  is,  with  precisely  the  same  term  as 
others  before  him  ;  or  he  at  least  essays  so  to  do.     For  the 
minute  reproduction  of  a  word  that  has  become  a  part  of 
the  body  of  speech  is  rendered  difficult  by  various  circum- 
stances, and  is  dependent  upon  divers  conditions.     The 
most  important  preliminary  condition  is  that  the  word 
shall  have  been  heard  and  perceived  in  all  its  minutiae ; 
it  must  have  been  perceived  by  the  hearer  exactly  as  it 
was  uttered  by  the  speaker.     The  accurate  perception  of 
a  foreign  or  new  word  is  rendered  most  easy  when  all  its 
separate  parts  are  pronounced  slowly  and  distinctly.    It  is 
by  such  a  method  that  the  child  will  most  readily  and  ac- 
curately learn  to  speak  and  to  read.     When  some  particu- 
lar sound  or  combination  of  sounds  uttered  by  the  speaker 
finds  a  lodgment  in  the  consciousness  of  the  hearer  and  is 
accurately  grasped  by  the  intellect  one  would  suppose  that 
when  the  latter  attempted  to  reproduce  it  by  imitation  the 
reproduction  would  correspond  precisely  to  the  original. 
It  is  perfectly  natural  for  one  man  to  believe  that  he  can 
imitate  any  sound  made  by  another  when  both  use  the 
same  vocal  organs.     This  however  by  no  means  follows  as 
a  matter  of  course ;  in  fact  experience  proves  the  converse  to 
be  generally  true, — for  just  as  all  imitation  is  imperfect  so 
is  imitation  in  language.     The  child  in  order  to  reproduce 
by  imitation  the  words  uttered  in  its  hearing,  proceeds  to 
put  its  vocal  organs  into  action,  with  but  a  faint  compre- 
hension of  the  methods  by  which  its  object  is  to  be  at- 
tained.    Its  first  efforts   produce   very   imperfect  results, 
but  it  constantly  compares  its  linguistic  achievements  with 
the  vocal  images,  so  to  speak,  inhering  in  its  consciousness 
and  is  in  this  way  constantly  reminded  of  its  shortcomings. 
It  then  brings  into  action  other  portions  of  its  vocal  or- 
gans, and  finally  by  oft-repeated  effort  it  succeeds  in  mak- 


A  History  of  the  German  Language  119 

ing  its  own  words  approximate  very  closely  to  those  it 
'hears  spoken  by  others.  Only  persons  with  an  abnormally 
acute  sense  of  hearing  are  able  to  reproduce  accurately 
any  word  they  hear.  But  the  human  ear  is  a  very  untrust- 
worthy instrument.  Two  sounds  may  seem  to  be  exactly 
identical  and  yet  be  considerably  different  in  the  mode  of 
their  production.  Then  again  different  causes  may  pro- 
duce similar  effects  ;  in  order  to  produce  the  same  acoustic 
effects  the  learner's  organs  of  speech  aie  likely  to  make 
movements  and  to  get  into  positions  that  do  not  accord 
with  those  of  the  teacher.  And  this  substitution  of  vocal 
effects  produced  in  one  way  for  those  produced  in  another 
which  produces  the  same  sum  of  results  is  likely  to  be 
often  necessary  because  the  organs  of  speech  of  different 
persons  are  differently  constructed  and  when  two  products, 
of  which  the  one  factor  is  unlike,  are  to  have  equal  value, 
the  remaining  factors  must  also  be  dissimilar.  To  illus- 
trate this  proposition  by  a  mathematical  formula  :  if  we 
multiply  5  by  9  the  product  is  45,  but  if  we  substitute 
some  other  digit  for  the  9  we  must  change  the  5  also  if  we 
want  to  still  get  45  as  our  product.  By  a  somewhat  simi- 
lar process  it  happens  that  words  when  transmitted  from 
father  to  son,  from  generation  to  generation,  undergo  a 
variation  or  a  series  of  variations  in  pronunciation.  It  is 
a  well  established  fact  that  languages  undergo  change  in 
the  course  of  time  when  there  is  no  appreciable  external 
influence  affecting  them.  This  gradual  change  is  usually 
spoken  of  as  decay,  though  there  is  no  good  reason  for  so 
designating  a  process  of  development  that  is  perfectly 
normal  and  that  in  no  way  impairs  the  efficiency  of  a  lan- 
guage as  a  medium  of  communication. 

The  deviation  from  any  particular  type  is  at  first  almost 
infinitesimally  small,  but  the  slight  difference  that  in 
course  of  time  comes  to  exist  between  the  pronunciation 
of  the  son  and  the  grandson  continues  to  grow  greater 
through  several  generations  and  in  a  century  or  two  be- 


120  A  History  of  the  German  Language 

comes  quite  marked.  These  differences  are  usually  of  two 
kinds  :  they  are  either  qualitative  or  quantitative.  In  the 
first  case  other  parts  of  the  organs  of  speech  are  brought 
into  action  and  other  muscles  used  than  before.  An  ex- 
ample is  furnished  by  the  transformation  of  the  labial  m 
into  the  dental  n  as  when  Inbisz  becomes  Imbisz.  In  the 
second  case  the  same  muscles  are  employed  with  greater 
or  less  vigor  or  force.  For  example,  less  muscular  exer- 
tion in  the  organs  of  speech  is  required  to  pronounce  Ferd 
and  Fund,  as  the  Westphalian  does  when  speaking  H.  G. 
than  -the  correct  forms  Pferd  and  Pfund.  Those  cases 
where  greater  muscular  exertion  is  made  in  trying  to  imi- 
tate a  particular  sound  are  comparatively  rare  compared 
with  those  in  which  the  result  is  sought  to  be  effected  with 
less.  Laziness,  as  it  is  sometimes  called  ;  a  disposition  to 
ease  of  utterance,  plays  an  important  role  in  the  develop- 
ment of  language,  less  important  however  as  a  cause  of 
variation  than  in  giving  a  particular  character  to  changes 
that  are  already  in  progress. 

It  is  customary  to  designate  the  mutations  in  language 
we  have  described  above  as  phonetic  laws,  or  to  speak  of 
these  as  due  to  phonetic  laws.  The  obstacles  that  hinder 
the  accurate  reproduction  of  a  sound  always  appear  when- 
ever an  attempt  is  made  to  utter  it,  no  matter  in  what 
word  or  how  often  it  may  recur.  In  other  words,  a  sound 
produced  by  the  organs  of  speech  always  follows  the  same 
line  of  variation  from  any  given  type.  By  noting  the  cir- 
cumstances under  which  the  variations  occur  we  are  able 
to  formulate  the  phonetic  law  of  the  case,  law  being  here 
simply  an  order  of  sequence.  It  is  a  phonetic  law,  or  to 
express  the  same  fact  in  other  words,  it  is  in  accordance 
with  a  phonetic  law,  that  the  long  i  of  the  M.  H.  G., 
which  is  still  preserved  in  some  modern  dialects,  becomes 
the  diphthong  ei  in  the  N.  H.  G. :  gige  appears  as  Geige, 
hirat  Heirat,  miden  meiden,  nit  Neid,  sit  Zeit,  and  so  on. 
This  statement  is  true  not  only  of  the  German  language 


A  History  of  the  German  Language  121 

within  itself,  that  is  of  one  dialect  as  related  to  another  or 
of  one  period  of  the  language  as  compared  with  another, 
but  likewise  of  every  other  language.  It  is  by  the  study 
of  phonetic  laws  that  the  relationship  of  the  most  distant 
members  of  the  same  family  of  languages  is  determined. 
To  these  laws  there  are  no  exceptions,  the  apparent  excep- 
tions being  due  to  the  action  of  yet  undiscovered  laws. 

This  uniformity  of  development,  however,  holds  good 
in  the  first  instance  of  the  individual  only.  In  the  case 
of  a  larger  number  of  persons  the  circumstances  that  in- 
fluence the  development  of  a  language  may,  and  often  do, 
vary  greatly.  The  sense  of  hearing  is  not  equally  acute 
in  all ;  or  the  organs  of  speech  may  not  be  formed  pre- 
cisely alike.  From  the  nature  of  the  conditions,  then,  it 
must  follow  that  in  course  of  time  as  many  languages  will 
be  formed  or  developed  as  there  are  separate  individuals. 
And  it  can  not  be  denied  that  even  within  the  narrowest 
circles  slight  differences  of  pronunciation  may  be  recog- 
nized among  those  composing  it.  But  it  is  true,  further- 
more, that  the  learner  is  not  wholly  or  even  chiefly  under 
the  influence  of  a  single  speaker,  but  under  several ;  so 
that  the  speech  of  each  person  is  in  a  certain  sense  an  epi- 
tome or  average  of  the  speech  used  by  the  social  circle  to 
which  he  belongs.  This  is  always  true  of  every  member 
of  the  rising  generation.  Where  this  is  part  of  a  circum- 
scribed circle  the  language  that  serves  as  a  model  is  rela- 
tively homogeneous,  and  the  various  averages  represented 
by  each  individual  differ  but  slightly  from  each  other  and 
from  the  more  primitive  type.  It  follows  naturally  that 
when  two  persons  or  two  groups  of  persons  cease  to  be  in 
close  relation  and  frequent  intercourse,  or  when  their  in- 
tercourse ceases  altogether  the  development  of  their  lan- 
guage must  bifurcate;  one  sound  will  gradually  change 
in  one  direction ;  another  will  slowly  vary  in  a  different 
direction  until  in  course  of  time  dialects  come  to  be  form- 
ed that  vary  considerably  from  each  other.  The  farther 
9 


122  A  History  of  the  German  Language 

two  contemporary  social  spheres  lie  apart,  the  less  the  in- 
tercourse between  them,  the  greater  will  become  the  dif- 
ferences of  speech  peculiar  to  each,  just  as  similarly  dif- 
ferences increase  with  the  lapse  of  time.  It  will  thus  be 
seen  that  there  is  no  radical  difference  between  the  causes 
that  produce  variations  in  language  whether  we  consider 
them  in  regard  to  place  or  in  regard  to  time. 


INNER   HISTORY  OP  THE  GERMAN   LANGUAGE. 
THE  INFLUENCE  OF    ANALOGY,   ETC. 

(See  also  farther  on  the  chapter  entitled  What  is  Analogy  in  Language?) 

If  a  language  underwent  no  changes  except  those  that 
were  due  to  phonetic  laws  its  history  would  be  very  simple 
and  transparent.  It  would  be  an  easy  matter  to  formulate 
these  laws  ;  and  by  a  knowledge  of  them  one  could,  by  a 
simple  mechanical  process,  turn  verses  from  Goethe  into 
the  language  of  the  Nibelungen  Lay,  or  the  poetry  of  Ot- 
fried  into  the  language  of  Ulfilas.  But  the  real  state  of 
the  case  is  altogether  different.  A  common  form  of  varia- 
tion from  the  normal  type  is  due  to  abbreviation  or  abridg- 
ment. This  may  take  place  in  the  case  of  a  single  word, 
as  when  we  say,  a  glass  of  soda,  for  a  glass  of  soda-water  ; 
or  a  kilo  for  a  kilogramme.  This  is  particularly  frequent 
in  proper  names  that  are  shortened  into  pet-names  or  nick- 
names. Instances  are  so  common  that  none  need  be  given 
here,  especially  as  this  subject  is  taken  up  again  in  the 
last  chapter.  A  different  class  of  abbreviations  are  those 
in  which  only  part  of  a  familiar  phrase  or  sentence  is  ex- 
pressed, the  hearer  being  left  to  infer  the  rest.  We  say, 
"  Good  morning,"  instead  of,  "  I  wish  you  a  good  morning," 
or  "  Wait  a  little,"  for  "  Wait  a  little  time  ;  "  and  so  on  ad 
infinitum.  Here  we  have  what  grammarians  usually  call 
ellipsis.  The  possibility  of  understanding  such  an  incom- 
plete series  of  sounds  is  easily  understood  when  we  take 
into  careful  consideration  the  psychic  processes  that  under- 
lie and  control  our  comprehension  of  a  spoken  word  or  sen- 


A  History  of  the  German  Language  123 

tence.  The  case  will  be  made  plainer  by  a  simple  illustra- 
tion from  the  material  world.  If  two  stringed  instruments 
are  in  the  same  room  and  a  string  of  one  is  set  in  vibration, 
the  strings  of  the  other  instrument  that  have  the  same  pitch 
or  that  stand  in  certain  harmonic  relations  to  it  will  vibrate 
of  their  own  accord.  A  somewhat  similar  phenomenon 
takes  place  in  speech.  When  a  word  or  sentence  is  utter- 
ed in  our  hearing,  it  does  not  merely  produce  a  mechan- 
ical effect  upon  the  mind,  but  awakens  like  or  similar  con- 
cepts that  exist  in  its  mysterious  depths.  Latent  images 
are  brought  under  consciousness  thro'  the  medium  of  the 
ear.  This  echo,  as  we  may  call  it,  is  returned  in  the  exact 
form  of  the  original  word  or  phrase,  provided  it  is  one  that 
has  been  heard  before.  This  is  an  important  element  in 
the  comprehension  of  another's  language.  It  would  be  a 
gross  error  to  suppose  that  in  ordinary  conversation  we  stop 
to  consider  each  individual  word  in  a  sentence  as  it  enters 
our  ears.  Unless  a  word  is  very  short,  we  rarely  hear  it 
entire.  We  take  note  only  of  the  important  parts  of  a 
word  or  sentence,  and  when  we  hear  these  the  complete 
concept  lying  dormant  in  consciousness  is  awakened.  We 
generally  fail  to  observe  how  fragmentary  is  that  which  we 
can  properly  be  said  to  hear.  This  will  also  explain  why 
it  is  that  we  understand  spoken  words  less  readily  than 
written  words,  especially  when  they  belong  to  a  language 
with  which  we  are  not  very  familiar.  More  or  less  time 
is  often  necessary  until  a  word  that  we  hear  or  see  touches 
a  responsive  chord  in  our  consciousness — until  we  under- 
stand it.  Sometimes  it  may  happen  that  we  are  obliged 
to  carry  a  word  in  the  memory  for  days  until  we  can  recall 
its  meaning,  that  is,  until  we  find  the  corresponding  word 
and  its  definition  that  had  been  previously  learned.  But 
words  may  awaken  concepts  that  are  not  identical  though 
containing  similar  radical  elements.  Let  us  take,  for  ex- 
ample, the  word  '  stone '  and  suppose  that  a  child  after 
hearing  it  repeatedly  has  fixed  it  firmly  in  memory.  If 


124  A  History  of  the  German  Language 

now  it  hears  the  word  '  stony '  without  any  clue  to  its  sig- 
nification, this  word  will  be  unconsciously  associated 
with  the  former,  though  the  child  may  not  recognize 
clearly  the  relation  existing  between  them.  Or  we  may 
take  the  word  '  horse '  and  we  shall  find  the  same  mental 
process  in  regard  to  '  horses '  together  with  such  com- 
pounds as  '  horse-whip,'  l  horse-thief,'  '  horse-play,'  '  un- 
horse,' 'horse-back,'  'horse-radish,'  'horse-shoe,'  'horse- 
fly,' and  many  others.  To  express  the  same  fact  some- 
what differently  :  words  having  the  same  vocal  elements 
are  unconsciously  associated  together.  The  feeling  arises 
in  the  mind  that  in  order  to  express  any  particular  repre- 
sentation or  concept  a  certain  sum  of  vocal  sounds  must 
enter  into  it.  Nor  is  a  perfect  coincidence  necessary  be- 
tween the  newly  awakened  concept  and  that  already  in 
the  mind  ;  a  certain  degree  of  resemblance  is  all  that  the 
mind  requires  in  order  to  associate  together  words  that  are 
etymologically  related.  Not  only  is  the  resemblance  be- 
tween nehmen,  genehm,  and  Vernehmung  easily  seen  but 
nimmt,  nahmen,  and  genommen  are  readily  associated  with 
them. 

Evidently  then,  such  word-groups,  by  the  principle  of 
mental  association,  afford  important  aid  to  the  memory  in 
retaining  the  individual  members  of  the  group,  and  they 
play  an  important  part  in  transmitting  an  inherited  lan- 
guage to  posterity.  On  the  other  hand,  words  may  be  as- 
sociated into  groups  though  they  have  a  merely  external 
resemblance,  while  in  signification  they  have  no  connec- 
tion at  all  with  each  other.  It  is  often  the  case  that  this 
mistaken  grouping  together  of  unrelated  words  has  the  ef- 
fect of  neutralizing  phonetic  laws.  The  law  of  associa. 
tion  is  more  powerful  than  the  tendency  to  ease  of  utter- 
ance and  counteracts  it.  Take  the  series  nehm-,  nimm-, 
nahm-,  nomm-,  and  how  shall  we  know  which  of  these 
forms  is  the  bearer  of  the  signification  ?  When  Luther 
says,  ich  kreuche,  er  kreucht,  wir  kriechen,  sie  kriechen,  is 


A  History  of  the  German  Language  125 

kreuch-  or  kriech-  the  true  representation,  either  vocal  or 
ideographic,  of  the  concept  '  creep'  ?  The  illiterate  user 
of  the  words  has  no  means  of  determining  this  question. 
He  only  remembers  that  the  present  tense  employs  nehm- 
or  nimm-,  and  the  perfect  genommen;  that  formerly  the 
singular  number  was  kreuch  and  the  plural  kriech-.  If  his 
concepts  become  confused  owing  to  a  momentary  failure 
of  memory  he  is  just  as  likely  to  say  ich  krieche,  wir  kreuchen, 
as  to  use  the  correct  forms.  Viewed  externally  we  may  say 
that  krieche  has  changed  its  form  after  the  pattern  or  the 
analogy  of  kriecJien,  From  many  similar  examples  we  take 
the  following :  in  some  of  the  German  dialects  we  find 
fahrt,  schlagt,  tragt  used  for  the  correct  forms  fahrt,  schlagt, 
tragt.  In  this  case  the  original  a  has  been  modified  after 
the  analogy  of  ich  fahre,  schlage,  fahren,  schlagen,  etc.  In 
such  instances  it  is  often  rather  difficult  to  determine  how 
the  influence  of  analogy  operated.  We  can  only  see  that 
a  given  expression  which  we  may  represent  by  x  has  taken 
on  so  close  a  resemblance  to  another  which  we  may  repre- 
sent by  y  that  it  must  always  remain  doubtful  which  was 
the  original  and  which  the  copy.  Of  this  character  are  the 
expressions  given  on  p.  1 06  ff.,  where  we  have  the  mixture  of 
two  locutions.  The  number  of  words  and  phrases  that  have 
undergone  changes  under  the  influence  of  analogy  is  very 
large — probably  as  large  as  those  that  have  been  regularly 
developed  according  to  phonetic  laws.  To  treat  the  sub- 
ject fully  would  require  a  volume.  Its  importance  is, 
however,  such  that  it  seems  advisable  to  pursue  it  some- 
what further. 

The  first  results  of  the  creation  of  new  forms  through 
the  influence  of  analogy  are  doublets.  Thus  krieche, 
spoken  of  above,  existed  for  a  time  alongside  of  kreuche, 
just  as  we  have  gelehrt  and  gelahrt,  gesendet  and  gesandt, 
gewendet  and  gewandt,  or  '  proven^  and  '  proved,'  '  digged  ' 
and  '  dug,'  '  lighted '  and  '  lit.'  Doublets  or  double  forms 
of  the  same  word  are  found  in  all  civilized  languages. 


126  A  History  of  the  German  Language 

The  two  words  do  not  however  generally  long  exist  side  by 
side  with  equal  rank.  The  genius  of  language  is  opposed  to 
the  maintenance  of  two  words  or  two  expressions  that 
mean  precisely  the  same  thing ;  in  the  course  of  time  one 
of  the  two  forms  becomes  obsolete.  If  both  are  preserved 
they  become  synonyms.  Both  the  English  and  the  Ger- 
man languages  contain  a  number  of  words,  the  one  of 
Germanic,  the  other  of  Latin  or  Greek  ancestry  that  are 
substantially  or  exactly  equivalent.  To  this  class  belong 
Telephon  and  Fernsprecher,  Lichtbild  and  Photographic ;  but 
the  tendency  of  all  languages  is  to  seek  to  accomplish  its 
ends  with  the  least  expenditure  of  effort.  It  is  not  im- 
probable, therefore,  that  one  of  these  will  erelong  cease 
to  be  in  current  use,  and  it  will  likely  be  the  borrowed 
word.  The  struggle  for  existence  between  ich  krieche  and 
ich  kreuche  has  been  decided  in  favor  of  the  former,  while  of 
the  couples  above  cited,  one  word  in  each  case  may  be  re- 
garded as  obsolescent  in  the  N.  H.  G.  Usually  that  one 
of  two  forms  survives  which  is  the  most  firmly  fixed  in  the 
memory  ;  in  other  words  that  which  is  the  most  frequently 
used  and  therefore  has  the  most  support  by  analogy. 
Kreuch  occurs  only  in  the  three  persons  of  the  present  in- 
dicative, and  in  the  singular  number  of  the  imperative, 
while  kriech  was  regularly  used  in  the  plural  of  the  present 
indicative,  in  the  entire  subjunctive,  in  the  infinitive,  in 
the  present  participle,  and  in  the  plural  number  of  the 
imperative.  If  the  forces  contending  for  the  mastery  are 
about  equally  matched  chance  decides  the  victory  in  favor 
of  one  or  the  other  party — and  when  we  speak  of  chance, 
in  this  connection  we  mean  no  more  than  some  hitherto 
undiscovered  law.  The  users  of  a  language  that  belong 
to  the  same  class  or  circle  naturally  tend  to  uniformity  of 
speech.  Thus  it  happens  that  groups  of  persons  who  are 
separated  and  have  no  intercourse  with  each  other  do  not 
retain  the  same  verbal  forms,  but  what  persists  in  one 
group  dies  out  in  another.  It  is  in  this  way  that  the  force 


A  History  of  the  German  Language'  127 

of  analogy  contributes  to  the  formation  of  dialects.  As  an 
example  of  this  we  may  cite  the  fact  that  in  the  M.  H.  G. 
period  the  first  person  plural  corresponding  to  ich  fandvtas 
wir  funden.  In  the  N.  H.  G.  the  vowel  of  the  root  is  the 
same  in  both  cases,  the  u  of  the  plural  having  been 
changed  by  analogy  into  0,  so  that  we  now  have  ich  fand, 
wir  fanden.  The  L.  G.  has  taken  the  opposite  course  so 
that  Fritz  Renter  has  heifunn,  wi  funnen. 

Again,  uniformity  may  be  attained  in  one  district  and 
not  in  another.  The  variation  between  a  and  a  as  shown 
in  ichfahre,  er  fdhrt  or  ich  trage,  er  trdgt  of  the  M.  H.  G. 
as  compared  with  the  N.  H.  G.  is  not  found  in  the  Middle- 
Netherlandic,  nor  in  many  of  the  contemporary  dialects 
that  still  have  er  fahrt,  er  tragt.  Why  uniformity  is  at- 
tained in  one  case  and  not  in  another  is  a  question  not 
easily  answered.  This  much  may,  however,  be  asserted. 
Where  original  differences  of  sound  are  associated  with 
differences  of  function  the  tendency  toward  uniformity  is 
feeble  and  the  opposite  tendency  strong.  If  we  compare, 
for  example,  the  forms,  ich  nehme,  wir  nehmen,  on  the  one 
hand,  with  the  widely  different  ich  nahm,  wir  nahmen,  on 
the  other,  we  observe  that  diversity  in  form  is  associated 
with  differences  of  function,  the  one  form  expressing 
present,  the  other  past,  time.  These  two  forms  have  ac- 
cordingly remained  distinct  in  all  German  dialects.  But 
in  the  M.  H.  G.  the  preterite  of  ich  hoere  was  ich  hdrte\  in 
which  case  the  distinction  between  the  oe  and  the  6  was 
needless,  the  /  being  sufficient  to  indicate  the  difference  in 
time  between  the  present  and  the  past.  The  N.  H.  G.  is 
accordingly  ich  horte.  This  is  in  conformity  with  a  trend 
everywhere  manifest  in  language,  to  achieve  the  largest 
results  with  the  smallest  expenditure  of  means — the  law 
of  least  effort.  The  difference  of  function  between  two 
cognate  words  may,  in  the  course  of  time,  become  so  great 
that  they  are  no  longer  felt  to  be  related.  Schon  and  fast 
were  originally  the  adverbial  forms  of  schbn  and  fest,  and 


128  A  History  of  the  German  Language 

similar  differences  in  pronunciation  between  adjective  and 
nonn  are  by  no  means  uncommon  in  the  M.  H.  G.  They 
have,  however,  only  been  kept  separate  in  cases  where, 
owing  to  the  meaning,  an  isolation  of  the  forms  of  the 
words  had  taken  place :  in  almost  all  other  instances  the 
influence  of  analogy  has  made  the  adjective  and  the  ad- 
verb alike.  In  the  M.  H.  G.  the  word  rauh  was  inflected, 
Nom.  ruck-  Gen.  ruhes.  It  is  related  to  Eng.  '  rough,'  and 
in  M.  G.  occurs  only  in  the  compounds  Rauch-werk,  Rauch- 
handel,  etc.,  where,  however,  the  primitive  adjectival  sig- 
nificance is  no  longer  remembered.  Innumerable  exam- 
ples of  such  isolated  forms  may  be  traced,  and  some  addi- 
tional ones  will  be  given  further  on. 

If  the  results  of  the  influence  of  analogy  are  compared 
with  those  changes  that  took  place  according  to  well  es- 
tablished phonetic  laws,  it  becomes  evident  that  the  two 
processes  stand  in  a  certain  contrast  to  each  other.  Pho- 
netic changes,  in  the  course  of  time  made  identical  types 
unlike :  the  hoere,  horte,  before  given,  were  at  an  earlier 
stage  horiu,  horte ;  the  horiu  was  gradually  transformed  into 
hoere  through  the  influence  of  the  i.  In  other  words,  z  in 
any  syllable  of  a  word  that  had  become  familiar  to  the 
users,  being  slightly  anticipated  in  pronunciation,  in  the 
course  of  time  modified  the  vowel  in  the  preceding  syl- 
lable. But  the  tendency  of  analogy  is  to  bring  together 
again  words  that  had  been  differentiated  under  the  in- 
fluence of  phonetic  laws  acting  in  a  contrary  direction.  In 
obedience  to  the  laws  of  association  the  effect  of  a  sound 
embodied  in  words  extends  beyond  the  limits  hitherto 
considered  and  suggests  others  that  have  no  related  sig- 
nificance or  etymology,  when  the  mere  external  form  is 
sufficiently  similar  to  recall  a  former  word — and  by  form 
we  mean  the  word  as  pronounced,  not  as  written.  Or,  to 
put  the  matter  somewhat  differently,  a  word  which  the 
speaker  is  in  the  habit  of  using  exists  in  his  mind  as  a 
latent  concept.  When  now  he  hears  another  with  which 


A  History  of  the  German  Language  129 

he  is  unfamiliar,  but  which  bears  some  resemblance  to  the 
former,  a  connection  is  at  once  suggested.  As  spoken 
words  are  but  sound,  this  process  bears  a  good  deal  of  re- 
semblance to  the  harmonic  overtones  that  are  produced 
when  certain  fundamental  notes  are  put  in  vibration. 
Usually  the  speaker  is  scarcely  conscious  of  a  possible  re- 
lation when  none  really  exists,  or  only  becomes  so  when 
really  related  concepts  do  not  appear.  Often  none  exist, 
as  is  usually  the  case  with  foreign  words ;  and  sometimes 
the  existence  of  an  etymological  relation  has  been  forgot- 
ten. For  example,  wahnwitzig  (wahnsinnig)  is  formed  of 
an  adjective  wan  (empty),  which  was  lost  at  a  very  early 
period  of  the  O.  G. ;  and  another  adjective  related  to  our 
word  '  wit.'  After  it  had  dropped  out  of  use  as  a  separate 
word,  another  closely  resembling  it  though  unrelated,  the 
substantive  Wahn,  took  its  place  in  popular  belief.  The 
same  results  may  follow  when  etymologically  related  words 
exist,  but  in  such  a  corrupted  form  that  the  relation  is  no 
longer  perceived.  Sometimes  the  formal  resemblance  be- 
tween unrelated  words  is  greater  than  between  such  as  are 
really  cognate.  The  word  Eiland  is  a  simplified  form  of 
Einland:  after  the  loss  of  the  n  it  looked  more  like  a  com- 
pound of  Ei  with  land  than  of  Ein,  and  was  often  so  re- 
garded. I  may  repeat  here  what  I  have  before  said  that 
mere  external  similarity  between  words  is  hardly  any  more 
a  sign  of  relationship  than  is  resemblance  in  form  or  face, 
between  persons.  There  is  no  visible  connection  between 
the  cognate  words  echt  and  Ehe  (see  p.  114)  though  one 
might  be  suspected  between  the  former  and  achten.  It 
sometimes  happens  that  the  phonetic  resemblance  of  a 
word  to  another  that  is  unrelated  is  less  close  than  to  a 
related  word,  and  yet  the  former  will  be  taken  as  its  con- 
gener. This  happens  when  the  proper  word  has  become 
obsolete  and  the  wrong  one  is  in  current  use.  An  instance 
occurs  in  the  word  Gallusthor,  a  designation  of  one  of  the 
gates  of  the  city  of  Frankfort,  which  was  formerly  das 


130  A  History  of  the  German  Language 

Galgenthor.  After  the  gallows,  which  gave  the  name,  had 
been  removed  and  forgotten,  the  inappropriateness  of  the 
older  designation  became  evident  to  even  those  who  did 
not  know  what  the  new  compound  meant.  Its  unpleasant 
associations  may  likewise  have  contributed  to  the  disuse 
of  the  correct  designation. 

This  process  of  mental  suggestion  and  association  which 
leads  to  the  grouping  of  unrelated  words  as  if  they  were 
cognate  solely  on  the  ground  of  external  similarity  is  usu- 
ally designated  as  popular  etymology  or  folk-etymology. 
Word-groups  brought  together  in  this  way  are  of  great 
importance  for  the  comprehension  and  memorizing  of  new 
words — perhaps  hardly  less  so  than  those  which  are  formed 
on  true  philological  principles.  In  such  cases  words  in- 
distinctly heard  are  associated  with  those  of  which  a  part 
has  been  retained  in  the  memory  and  called  into  con- 
sciousness by  the  principle  of  association.  If  then  the 
words  imperfectly  grasped  correspond  at  least  partly  with 
such  as  are  already  familiar  to  the  hearer  he  generally 
completes  them  correctly  and  they  are  reproduced  un- 
changed except  in  obedience  to  the  proper  phonetic  laws 
applicable  to  the  case.  Wahnwitz  and  Eiland,  given  above, 
are  examples  of  this  process.  But  if  no  corresponding 
word  exists  in  the  mind  of  the  hearer,  he  completes  the 
new  word  as  best  he  may  with  others  that  deviate  more  or 
less  widely  from  the  original.  In  popular  speech,  for  ex- 
ample, unguentum  Neapolitanum  becomes  iimgewendter  Napo- 
leon and  Mautturm  is  transformed  into  Mauseturm. 

Cases  where  foreign  or  obsolete  words  are  perverted  into 
native  ones  are  as  common  in  English  as  in  German,  and  a 
few  examples  may  be  cited  to  show  how  frequently  this 
mental  process  finds  expression  in  sound.  Ibrahim  Pacha 
was  known  by  the  unlettered  in  England  as  "Abraham  Par- 
ker," the  name  of  the  ship  Hirondelle  was  called  "  Iron 
Devil  "  by  the  English  sailors  ;  and  "  chateauvert "  has  be- 
come "Shotover."  The  Indian  name  Swatara,  which  occurs 


A  History  of  the  German  Language  131 

in  Pennsylvania,  is  frequently  pronounced  "Sweet-arrow,'' 
and  libel  is  often  taken  to  be  a  compound  of  the  two 
words  lie-bill. 

The  tenacity  with  which  the  elementary  parts  of  word- 
groups  formed  by  the  influence  of  folk-etymology  cohere 
is  not  equally  great  in  all  cases.  Words  may  be  thrown 
together  because  of  a  mere  external  similarity  of  sound 
without  any  reference  to  the  sense.  Some  of  the  illustra- 
tions above  given  exhibit  this.  In  the  last  century  Aben- 
teuer  was  written  Abendtheuer;  but  it  is  doubtful  whether 
any  one  who  used  it  thought  of  it  as  designating  an  event 
that  took  place  in  the  evening  (Abend},  If  it  occurs  to 
the  speaker  that  no  relationship  exists  between  words 
more  or  less  alike  he  sometimes  seeks  to  find  a  reason  for 
the  form  before  him.  The  designation  Sauerland,  origi- 
nally Suderland,  i.  e.,  Silderland  applied  to  the  southern 
portion  of  Saxony,  was  justified  in  popular  belief  by  the 
anecdote  which  represented  Karl  the  Great  as  having  ex- 
claimed after  its  conquest  "  das  war  mir  ein  sauer  land," 
saner  being  still  used  as  an  epithet  of  that  which  costs 
great  labor.  Similarly  Achalm,  the  name  of  an  old  castle 
in  Wurtemberg,  is  said  to  have  come  from  the  interrupted 
exclamation,  "Ach  Allmachtiger,"  of  a  dying  knight ;  and 
the  story  goes  that  the  Wartburg  in  Saxony  is  so  called 
because  its  builder  cried  out  on  looking  from  the  eminence 
on  which  it  stands,  "  Wart  nur  Berg,  du  sollst  mir  eine  Burg 
iverden"  Shotover  Hill  in  Oxfordshire  is  popularly  be- 
lieved to  get  its  name  from  the  circumstance  that  an  archer 
shot  an  arrow  over  it,  and  Quebec  is  often  explained  as  be- 
ing a  contraction  of  "  quel  bee!"  (what  a  peninsula!)  the 
exclamation  used  by  a  delighted  Frenchman  upon  a  first 
view  of  the  site  of  the  town.  It  must  be  remembered, 
however,  that  in  almost  every  case  of  this  kind 
the  occurrence  was  subsequently  invented  to  ex- 
plain the  name,  and  that  its  real  origin  must  be 
looked  for  elsewhere.  This  process  takes  place  in 


132  A  History  of  the  German  Language 

what  is  sometimes  designated  as  the  myth-making  stage 
of  popular  etymology. 

In  some  cases  the  phonetic  similarity  between  two  or 
more  words  suggests  to  the  hearer  a  relationship  of  signifi- 
cation. This  may  be  favored  by  attending  circumstances. 
The  statement  holds  good,  for  instance,  in  Silndflut,  trans- 
formed from  the  original  sin-ftuot,  which  means,  the  great 
flood,  and  not,  as  popularity  imagined,  a  flood  sent  upon 
the  earth  on  account  of  men's  sins.  Here  the  old  mean- 
ing of  sin  has  been  displaced  by  a  modern  word  having  a 
somewhat  similar  form,  but  an  entirely  different  meaning. 
There  is  reason  to  believe  that  the  term  "Mysteries" 
(Mysterien)  as  applied  to  the  well  known  mediaeval  relig- 
ious dramas  was  generally  associated  in  the  popular  mind 
with  the  mystery  of  divine  service  (Cf.  Luke  VIII.,  10. 
"  Unto  you  it  is  given  to  know  the  mysteries  of  the  king- 
dom of  God.'1  u  Vobis  datum  est  nosse  mysterium  regni 
Dei "),  when  in  reality  it  is  derived  from  the  Latin  '  min- 
isterium  '  and  has  no  connection  with  mystery.  Examples 
of  this  kind  are  however  comparatively  rare. 

The  assumed  relationship  between  a  new  word  and  a 
familiar  one  is  generally  based  on  slight  grounds,  some- 
times on  facts  that  are  incompatible  with  each  other.  The 
word  Armbrust,  from  the  Latin  arcubalista,  easily  suggests 
arm  and  Brust,  but  the  connection  between  these  parts  of 
the  human  body  and  the  weapon  remains  obscure.  Few 
people  would  think  that  an  Eiland  ought,  properly  speak- 
ing, to  designate  a  portion  of  land  having  the  shape  of  an 
egg.  To  most  persons  doubtless  the  word  Maulwurf  sug- 
gests the  thought  that  the  animal  was  so  named  because 
it  casts  up  the  earth  with  its  mouth  ;  when  in  fact  it  does 
this  with  its  hind  feet.  The  word  was  originally  Moltwerf, 
which  is  the  nearer  the  Eng.  '  mold-warp,'  an  animal  that 
casts  up  the  mold.  The  current  term  mole,  which  appears 
also  in  mole-hill,  is  a  part  of  the  original,  somewhat  modi- 
fied. Nevertheless,  however  great  the  transformation  a 


133 

word  has  undergone  owing  to  a  popular  misconception  of 
its  etymological  relationship,  its  meaning  generally  under- 
goes no  change.  But  there  are  exceptions.  Sometimes 
resemblance  of  sound  suggests  a  wrong  meaning  which 
may  in  the  course  of  time  entirely  displace  the  correct 
one.  Das  gelobte  Land  meant  originally  '  the  promised 
land,'  the  adjective  coming  from  geloben;  but  it  is  now 
generally  supposed  to  belong  to  loben,  which  is  however  a 
different  word.  Sue/it  can  hardly  be  used  in  any  other 
sense  than  to  designate  a  blameworthy  striving.  This 
grows  out  of  the  fact  that  it  has  long  been  mentally  asso- 
ciated with  the  verb  suchen,  when  in  reality  it  originally 
designated  a  disease  and  is  etymologically  related  to  siech. 
There  is  still  a  third  kind  of  phonetic  suggestion.  This 
takes  place  when  words  as  wholes  are  so  unlike  that  a  con- 
fusion of  meaning  is  impossible,  while  yet  there  seems  to 
be  a  certain  remote  connection  between  them.  Hence  it 
results  that  two  words  are  brought  into  mental  juxtaposi- 
tion the  significations  of  which  in  part  overlap.  There  is 
a  manifest  tendency  in  the  Germanic  languages  to  place 
such  words  together  and  the  effect  has  been  to  enrich 
them  with  a  number  of  formulas  containing  two  or  more 
members  that  are  associated  because  of  the  similarity 
of  certain  sounds  which  they  embody.  The  initial 
syllables  or  letters  may  be  the  same  and  produce  allitera- 
tion. The  systematic  employment  of  such  initial  sounds 
is  a  recognized  principle  in  old  Germanic  metrical  compo- 
sition. The  number  of  alliterative  formulas  in  German  is 
very  large  and  they  belong  under  several  different  heads. 
They  may  combine  synonyms  as  los  und  ledig,  Lust  und 
Liebe,  Schimpf  und  Schande ;  or  antonyms,  as  Lust  und  Leid, 
samt  und  senders ,  Wo  hi  und  We  he ;  or  parts  of  a  whole  as 
Haus  und  Hof,  Kiiche  und  Keller,  Mann  und  Maus.  Phrases 
of  this  kind  are  not  uncommon  in  English,  as  "  neither 
praise  nor  pudding,"  "  weal  or  woe,"  "  chick  and  child," 
"  watch  and  ward,"  "  hale  and  hearty,"  "  glory  and 


134  A  History  of  the  German  Language 

gloom."  They  may  be  made  up  of  words  placed  in  a  syn- 
tactical relation  to  each  other,  as  bitterbose,  der  wilde  Wald 
(cf.  the  wild- wood),  seine  sieben  Sachen,  wenn  die  Maus  satt 
ist,  ist  das  MehL  bitter;  or  the  initial  sounds  may  be  differ- 
ent, but  the  principal  words  rime  together,  as  Lug  und 
Trug,  Saus  und  Brans,  toll  und  voll,  Dach  und  Fach,  Freud 
oder  Leid,  Handel  und  Wandel,  Sang  und  Klang,  Wahl 
macht  Qua/,  heute  rot,  morgen  tot. 

When  there  is  no  word  in  the  mind  of  the  hearer  to  be 
recalled  by  a  new  one  that  is  brought  to  his  attention  and 
by  which  it  may  be  remembered,  considerable  mental  ef- 
fort is  required  to  retain  it  even  when  clearly  apprehended. 
When  then  this  is  not  the  case  fancy  has  free  play  and 
there  is  no  check  to  the  mutilations  it  may  produce.  For 
this  reason  proper  names  usually  fare  the  worst  because 
they  are  of  comparatively  infrequent  recurrence  and  do 
not  afford  much  opportunity  for  revision  and  correction. 

There  is  another  principle  of  association  leading  to  the 
formation  of  word-groups  that  is  different  from  any  so  far 
considered.  Owing  to  the  habit  of  bringing  together 
words  that  have  the  same  or  similar  sounds,  a  certain  one 
comes  to  be  regarded  as  the  bearer  of  the  signification,  as 
stein  in  steinigen,  versteinern,  etc.,  and  this  is  the  only  im- 
portant part  of  the  words.  It  is  this  notion  that  often 
leads  to  the  formation  of  popular  etymologies. 

But  there  is  another  mental  process  that  goes  hand  in 
hand  with  the  observation  of  the  points  of  agreement  be- 
tween words,  and  that  is  the  observation  of  their  differ- 
ences. Many  words  have  what  are  apt  to  be  regarded  as 
superfluous  syllables — syllables  that  seem  to  have  little  or 
nothing  to  do  in  determining  the  meaning,  and  which  in 
fact  have  nothing  to  do  with  the  radical  signification. 
How  wide-spread  this  notion  may  become  is  forcibly  illus- 
trated in  the  case  of  the  French,  which  consists  almost 
entirely  of  Latin  words,  less  that  part  that  follows  the  ac- 
cented syllable.  Many  Anglo-Saxon  words  suffered  a  sim- 


A  History  of  the  German  Language  135 

ilar  apocopation  during  their  transition  in  the  English. 
One  German  word  may  end  in  -*»,  another  in  -igen,  and  still 
another  in  -ern,  as  Steine,  steinigen,  steinern,  and  these  end- 
ings add  nothing  to  the  root  that  is  peculiar  to  it.  Some- 
times the  radical  meaning  is  embodied  in  one  form  ;  some- 
times in  another;  sometimes  it  is  contained  in  a  single 
syllable ;  sometimes  in  two  or  even  more  syllables.  In 
other  cases  it  represents  an  action ;  in  still  others  it  mere- 
ly designates  the  accompaniment  of  a  different  concept. 
When  now  a  word  differs  in  meaning  from  another  having 
the  same  stem,  the  notion  may  easily  arise  that  the  differ- 
ence is  owing  solely  to  the  termination.  On  comparing 
Stein,  Steine,  steinigen,  steinern,  it  is  natural  to  suppose  that 
the  plural  is  represented  by  the  final  -e,  the  casting  of 
stones  by  -igen,  and  something  made  of  stones  by  -ern. 
But  it  should  be  carefully  noted  that  we  are  concerned 
here  with  a  definite,  simple,  concept  only  ;  it  by  no  means 
follows  necessarily  that  the  -e  is  used  to  designate  quan- 
tity. When  now  a  person,  who  has  come  to  the  conclusion 
above  noted  as  to  the  use  of  the  -£,  hears  such  a  word  as 
Kreuze,  it  will  not  only  suggest  Kreuz,  or  some  similar 
word,  but  also  the  termination  -e  found  in  Steine  and  per- 
haps the  word  itself.  The  same  may  happen  in  the  case 
of  Fische,  Tage,  Tische,  etc.  Not  only  is  the  etymologically 
related  word  suggested,  but  two  others  that  are  unrelated, 
merely  because  of  a  certain  similarity  of  sound.  The  sug- 
gestion is  usually  weak  so  long  as  there  is  nothing  in  com- 
mon between  two  words  except  a  similarity  of  sound.  For 
example,  laste  and  Last,  fange  and  Fang,  resemble  Steine 
and  Stein  only  in  the  added  or  subtracted  -e.  The  case  is 
different  when  the  similarity  includes  intellectual  elements 
also.  If  we  compare  Kreuz  with  Kreuze,  or  Stein  with 
Steine  it  seems  evident  that  the  final  -e  serves  the  purpose 
of  indicating  the  plural  number.  Groups  of  words  are 
thus  formed  bearing  all  manner  of  relations  to  some  radi- 
cal or  elementary  signification.  From  steinern,  Stein  or 


136 

holzern,  Holz,  the  natural  inference  is  that  the  ending  -ern 
is  used  to  designate  material,  while  from  hore,  horte  or 
sage,  sagte  it  seems  plain  that  the  /  indicates  past  time. 
It  is  evident  that  such  word-groups  are  further  important 
for  the  transmission  of  language  from  generation  to  gen- 
eration, as  they  are  of  the  greatest  importance  for  every 
single  act  of  speaking.  It  is  neither  necessary  nor  possi- 
ble to  remember  whether  in  the  case  of  each  separate 
word,  one  has  ever  noticed  how  its  plural  is  formed ;  it 
suffices  to  recall  a  few  that  can  be  taken  as  models.  So 
long  as  the  speaker  follows  correct  models  the  new  forms 
will  be  correct,  but  without  a  thorough  knowledge  of  the 
materials  he  is  using  he  will  now  and  then  be  led  uncon- 
sciously astray.  If  the  preterit  tense  of  klagen  is  klagte 
and  of  sagen  is  sagte,  that  of  schlagen  would  naturally  be 
supposed  to  be  schlagte,  though  it  is  not.  In  like  manner 
if  Apfel  and  Acker  make  their  plurals  with  Aepfel  and 
Aecker  respectively,  the  inference  is  natural  though  incor- 
rect that  the  plural  of  Adler  will  be  Aedler.  And  blunders 
of  this  sort  are  constantly  made  by  learners  of  a  language, 
whether  children  who  are  acquiring  their  vernacular  or 
adults,  a  foreign  language.  A  somewhat  careful  examina- 
tion of  the  whole  question  will  convince  any  one  that  all 
languages  exhibit  this  tendency  toward  greater  uniformity 
— a  tendency  that  is  however  less  marked  in  those  that 
have  acquired  a  more  fixed  character  through  the  art  of 
printing  than  in  others.  The  inclination  to  form  words 
into  groups  is  directly  opposed  to  the  operation  of  phonetic 
laws  properly  so  r  '  ted.  Like  as  Stein  and  Krenz  become 
plural  by  affixing  an  -  ,  so  do  Blatt,  Haus  and  Lamm  by 
the  addition  of  -er  and  infixing  an/;  or  Graf,  Bar  and 
Herr  by  adding  -en.  In  sagen  and  klagen,  t  is  employed  as^ 
a  sign  of  the  preterit,  while  in  graben,  tragen,  schlagen  the 
same  result  is  effected  *by  a  modification  of  the  radical 
vowel.  It  will  thus  be  seen  that  German  like  most  other 
languages  has  more  than  one  way  of  indicating  phonetic- 


A  History  of  the  German  Language  137 

• 

ally  grammatical  and  logical  relations.  Whan  now  the 
speaker  remembers  that  one  method  is  employed  in  one 
case  and  a  different  one  in  another  it  is  a  matter  of  some 
chance  which  of  the  two  he  will  employ  in  a  third.  It  is 
probable  that  the  new  form  will  be  shaped  according  to 
the  model  with  which  he  is  most  familiar  that  is  the  one 
which  has  been  most  firmly  fixed  in  his  memory.  Under 
such  circumstances  it  may  happen  that  a  word  of  frequent 
occurrence  will  have  an  equally  strong  influence  with  sev- 
eral others  of  a  uniform  type,  but  which  are  less  common. 

It  will  be  seen  from  this  brief  statement  of  some  of  the  most  im- 
portant principles  of  the  life  and  growth  of  language  that  phonetic 
laws  can  be  as  little  controlled  by  man  as  the  laws  of  the  physical 
universe.  While  each  separate  individual  may  modify  his  own 
speech  and  regulate  it  according  to  his  own  pleasure,  his  influence 
under  the  most  favorable  condition  does  not  extend  far.  If  he  would 
speak  and  write  for  the  purpose  of  being  understood  he  must  use 
words  that  can  be  easily  understood.  A  language  goes  its  own  way 
and  not  much  can  be  done  toward  intelligently  directing  its  course. 
In  the  words  of  the  poet  Uhland 

Indes  Gelehrte  walten,  bestimmen  und  gestalten 

der  Sprache  Form  und  Zier, 

So  schaffest  du  inwendig,  thatkraf  tig  und  lebendig 
gesamtes  Volk  an  ihr. 


INADEQUACY  OF  THE    TRADITIONAL    VOCABULARY. 

Supposing  a  language  to  possess  the  proper  terms  for  the 
accurate  embodyment  in  speech  of  certain  concepts,  it 
may  happen  nevertheless  that  the  right  word  or  words  do 
not  report  themselves  to  the  consciousness  of  the  speaker 
when  they  are  wanted  ;  or  he  may  know  them  and  be  un- 
willing to  make  use  of  them.  In  order  to  express  himself 
at  all  he  will  be  obliged  to  have  recourse  to  words  not  pre- 
viously employed  in  the  sense  he  attaches  to  them.  He 
may  use  old  words  with  a  new  meaning,  or  he  may  create 
new  words.  The  result  in  the  former  case  is,  in  a  certain 
sense,  the  impoverishment  of  language ;  in  the  other  its 

vocabulary  is  enlarged.     The  causes  that  lead  to  the  use 
10 


138  A  History  of  the  German  Language 

• 

of  new  verbal  designation,  are  many  and  various.  Of 
course  the  memory  can  not  recall  that  which  was  never 
entrusted  to  its  keeping.  Adults  are  frequently  unable  to 
give  expression  to  thoughts  and  feelings  new  to  them.  On 
the  other  hand  children  often  coin  new  words  that  the 
adult  easily  dispenses  with.  But  the  power  to  recall  that 
which  was  once  in  the  mind  likewise  differs  with  different 
persons.  Words  rarely  used  are  more  likely  to  be  for- 
gotten than  those  of  common  occurrence.  The  same  is 
true  of  those  that  have  but  few  cognates  as  compared  with 
those  having  many.  For  this  reason  it  is  found  to  be  a 
great  help  in  the  acquisition  of  a  language  to  associate 
each  new  word  with  one  in  some  way  related  to  it  with 
which  the  beginner  is  already  familiar.  Besides,  persons 
of  equal  intelligence  and  culture  do  not  recall  words  with 
the  same  facility.  Much  depends  on  the  degree  of  atten- 
tion and  on  time  in  recalling  previous  concepts.  The 
ability  to  hold  the  attention  steadily  to  what  is  before  the 
mind  is  least  in  persons  of  meager  education,  and  defective 
intellectual  training.  It  is  a  matter  of  common  observa- 
tion that  persons  of  this  class  are  fond  of  using  familiar 
formulas,  and  leaving  the  hearer  or  reader  to  infer  the 
particular  shade  of  meaning  they  are  intended  to  convey- 
Widely  diverse  significations  are  attached  to  the  same 
word  or  phrase.  The  word  "  make "  like  the  German 
machen  is  used  in  many  senses  differing  widely  from  the 
original.  We  hear,  the  train  made  (ran)  forty  miles  an 
hour;  he  made  (earned)  a  great  deal  of  money;  he  made 
(gained)  many  friends;  they  made  (elected)  him  president ; 
to  make  the  beds ;  to  make  love ;  to  make  one  out  a  fool ; 
and  so  on,  almost  ad  infinitum.  It  is  further  to  be  ob- 
served that  a  certain  mental  inertia,  oftener  called  lazi- 
ness, is  characteristic  of  certain  classes  of  society,  and  ex- 
hibits itself  in  speech.  There  is  in  current  use  a  large  list 
of  students'  words  and  phrases,  a  sort  of  college  slang,  in 
which  there  is  evident  the  desire  to  make  the  same  word- 


A  History  of  the  German  Language  139 

forms  do  duty  on  a  hundred  different  occasions  and  to 
express  the  most  diverse  ideas.  The  same  tendency  is 
observable  in  every  occupation  in  which  any  considerable 
number  of  persons  are  engaged.  It  is  not  necessary  to  be 
very  explicit  to  those  who  habitually  share  our  thoughts 
and  feelings :  they  will  understand  what  we  mean  upon 
the  merest  hint.  Such  consciously  or  unconsciously  formed 
guilds  have  generally  certain  characteristics  of  speech  in 
common  that  constitute  a  kind  of  badge  of  membership  in 
the  same  craft.  Besides,  it  is  not  natural  for  human  be- 
ings to  exert  themselves  either  mentally  or  physically  be- 
yond what  is  necessary ;  and  where  the  interest  is  mainly 
turned  in  certain  directions  other  interests  are  neglected. 
Different  mental  states  in  the  same  person  also  exert 
an  influence  on  the  facility  with  which  words  are  recalled, 
and  on  the  vocabulary.  Generally  speaking,  a  much 
smaller  number  of  new  word-forms  is  likely  to  be  coined 
in  speaking  than  in  writing,  because  the  tone  of  voice  which 
accompanies  our  utterances  makes  our  words  more  readily 
intelligible  and  makes  it  less  important  that  we  confine 
ourselves  to  a  well  established  vocabulary.  In  serious 
discourse  we  are  apt  to  use  a  smaller  number  of  words 
than  in  the  familiar  language  of  every-day  life.  When  en- 
gaged in  the  calm  interchange  of  thought  with  another  we 
usually 'hold  ourselves  closer  to  the  traditional  forms  of 
speech  than  when  under  excitement  or  in  passionate  argu- 
ment. The  degree  of  our  attention  is  also  influenced  by 
the  importance  we  attach  to  the  thoughts  we  have  to  com- 
municate. This  factor  has  had  no  inconsiderable  effect 
upon  the  language  of  law  and  diplomacy.  Here  the 
slightest  inaccuracy  of  expression  or  statement  may  give 
rise  to  complications  and  disputes.  Accordingly  well 
established  words  and  formulas  are  sought  with  pains- 
taking accuracy,  either  by  an  effort  of  memory  or  by  re- 
course to  written  or  printed  documents :  and  when  these 
recur  they  are  not  avoided  by  the  substitution  of  synor 


140  A  History  of  the  German  Language 

nyms — a  practice  that  is  well  nigh  universal  in  discourse 
where  artistic  effect  is  aimed  at. 

But  even  when  the  speaker  is  in  position  to  employ 
other  than  stereotyped  modes  of  speech  to  express  his 
thoughts  he  may  have  reasons  for  not  doing  so.  Generally 
his  main  object  is  to  be  understood  and  his  hearers  may  be 
less  cultured  than  he ;  or  he  may  be  able  to  express  what 
he  has  to  say  in  several  different  ways,  but  his  hearers  to 
comprehend  but  one.  In  the  M.  H.  G.  there  are  three 
different  words  having  the  form  wern.  One  of  these  is 
equivalent  to  dauern,  which  has  Eng.  cognates  in  '  dure,' 
4  endure,'  and  is  the  modern  wdhren.  Another  of  its 
meanings  is  4  hinder,'  '  keep  off.'  The  simple  form  is  no 
longer  common  and  occurs  only  as  an  archaism.  The  usual 
forms  are  abwehren  and  verwehren.  Still  another  of  its 
meanings  was  sahlen,  geben  (pay,  give)  and  is  etymolog- 
ically  related  to  the  Eng.  '  warrant ;'  it  is  preserved  in 
gewdhren.  The  identity  in  form  of  these  three  words  grad- 
ually led  to  the  disuse  of  two,  in  common  speech,  and -the 
same  fate  has  overtaken  other  words. 

The  danger  of  ambiguity  is,  however,  generally  less 
than  might  be  supposed  at  first  blush,  because  the  context 
usually  shows  in  what  sense  the  speaker  wishes  his  words 
to  be  understood ;  though  in  written  or  printed  documents 
misapprehension  is  more  likely  to  occur  than  in  living 
speech.  But  the  ends  for  which  language  exists  are  not 
subserved  if  it  be  understood  after  mature  reflection. 
Frequently  the  object  of  the  speaker  is  attained  only  in 
case  his  words  are  easily  understood  and  as  rapidly  as 
they  are  uttered ;  often,  too,  a  thing  or  a  thought  is  of  no 
interest  to  us  in  its  relation  to  other  things  and  thoughts  ; 
we  are  concerned  about  a  single  phase  or  quality  of  it 
only.  We  accordingly  want  it  to  be  designated  by  such  a 
term  as  will  cause  its  concept  to  stand  out  prominently 
among  its  surroundings  and  secure  for  it  a  ready  compre- 
hension. 


A  History  of  the  German  Language  141 

Ease  of  comprehension  may  be  further  facilitated  by  the 
addition  of  modifying  elements  to  existing  formulas  of 
speech,  and  these  elements  may  be  either  additions  to  in. 
dividual  words  or  to  the  phrase.  At  present  prepositions 
are  often  used  with  cases  where  formerly  the  case  was  of 
itself  sufficiently  definite.  If  one  compares  a  page  of 
Anglo-Saxon,  or  Greek,  or  Latin  with  one  of  English  or 
French  it  becomes  evident  almost  at  a  glance  that  parti- 
cles are  of  much  more  frequent  occurrence  in  the  modern 
than  in  the  older  languages.  In  the  N.  H.  G.  the  number 
of  connecting  words  is  larger  than  in  the  M.  H.  G. ;  and 
we  can  trace  step  by  step  the  substitution  of  compound 
for  simple  words.  A  few  examples  have  already  been 
given.  Similarly  bediirfen,  begehren,  bewegen,  erbarmen, 
erbleichen,  erhitsen,  gedeihen,  gehoren,  genieszen,  are  now 
used  in  precisely  the  same  sense  which  these  words  for- 
merly had  without  the  inseparable  prefix.  Einladen  has 
usurped  the  functions  of  an  earlier  laden;  abgesandter  that 
of  gesandter ;  loslosen  that  of  Ibsen ;  mindern  was  grad- 
ually displaced  by  vermindern,  and  this,  in  turn,  is  being 
supplanted  by  herabmindern;  Sometimes  words  of  like 
or  closely  related  meanings  are  combined  and  the  com- 
pound used  in  the  sense  of  one  or  the  other,  when  the  fact 
of  composition  had  been  forgotten.  Formerly  Maul, 
Saum  and  Elen  meant  precisely  what  Maultier,  Saumtier 
and  Elentier  mean  now.  The  first  part  of  the  compound 
Windhund,  Eng.  '  greyhound,'  has  no  more  connection 
with  '  wind '  in  the  sense  of  air  in  motion  than  '  grey '  in 
the  above  word  has  with  '  gray  '  a  color.  Both  com- 
pounds are  in  one  respect  curiously  alike.  In  the  M.  H. 
G.  wint  was  a  sufficient  designation  of  the  animal,  and 
some  word  now  represented  by  '  grey '  seems  to  have 
meant  '  dog '  in  an  early  period  of  the  Germanic  lan- 
guages. In  the  compound  Lindwurm  (dragon)  the  first 
syllable  in  the  form  lint  was  originally  equivalent  to 
Wurm,  Schlange.  • 


142  A  History  of  the  German  Language 

Of  two  expressions  that  one  is  always  the  clearest  and 
most  easily  understood  which  is  etymologically  the  most 
transparent, — in  other  words,  that  has  one  or  more  cog- 
nates in  form  and  signification.  The  M.  H.  G.  mac  has 
been  displaced  by  the  modern  Verwandter  which  means 
the  same  thing ;  an  older  maere,  by  beriihmt,  and  mage- 
zoge  by  Erzieher.  Minne  and  mtnnen,  so  frequent  in  medi- 
aeval German,  have  been  supplanted  by  Liebe  and  lieben, 
doubtless  because  these  words  have  a  strong  support  in 
the  adjective  lieb.  In  some  instances  it  is  not  easy  to  un- 
derstand why  one  word  has  gradually  fallen  into  disuse 
and  another  meaning  the  same  thing  taken  its  place,  when 
the  object  which  it  designates  has  remained  unchanged. 
There  is  an  evident  disposition  in  common  speech  to 
avoid  the  solitary  adverb  sehr  and  to  supply  its  place  with 
such  intensivesas/^r^ter/^,  eklig,  haarig,  hollisch,  mbr- 
derlich,  ochsig,  and  the  like, — a  tendency  that  is  also  quite 
marked  in  Eng.  where  we  frequently  hear  such  substitutes 
as  '  awful/  "  mighty,'  'devilish,'  etc.  Instead  of  the  Ger- 
man Maul  one  frequently  hears  Fresse,  Gefrasz ;  and  the 
still  coarser  terms  Schnabel,  Riissel  are  not  uncommon 
among  the  lower  classes  for  Mund;  Riecher  (smeller)  is 
used  for  Nase;  verrecken,  properly  said  of  the  lower  ani- 
mals only,  for  sterben;  Deckel  (lid,  cover)  for  Huty  etc. 

An  indirect  or  tropical  manner  of  speech  is  more 
graphic  and  therefore  more  easily  comprehended  than  a 
direct.  By  means  of  a  trope  the  attention  is  drawn  to  that 
characteristic  of  a  whole  complex  mental  image  in  which 
lies  the  point  of  comparison  of  its  two  members.  Figur- 
ative expressions  are  more  frequent  in  poetry  than  in 
prose.  That  of  the  orient  is  usually  filled  with  strongly 
metaphorical  turns.  Many  examples  may  be  found  in  the 
Book  of  Psalms,  as  witness  numbers  XXIII.,  XCL,  CXIV. 

The  language  of  what  would  generally  be  regarded  as  a 
widely  different  sphere,  that  of  common  life,  is  interspers- 
ed with  metaphors.  Instead  of*  the  direct  sich  tduschen 


A  History  of  the  German  language  143 

(to  be  mistaken),  one  hears  sich  schneiden  (to  cut  one's 
self),  sich  stoszen  (to  hit  against,  accidentally),  sich  ver- 
hauen  (to  hew  over  the  line) ;  in  place  of  vergessen^  ver- 
schwitzen  (to  spoil  with  sweat) ;  instead  of  studieren,  ochsen 
or  bilffeln.  A  rude  fellow  is  designated  as  klobig,  klotzig 
or  knotig  (cloddish,  or  gnarly — cf.  the  Eng.  block-head, 
one  whose  head  is  like  a  block  of  wood) ;  a  bed  (Beti)  is 
called  Korb,  Klappe,  Nest;  for  Bauch,  Ramen  (paunch)  or 
Schwartenmagen  is  used  while  the  head  (Kopf}  is  spoken 
of  as  Kilbel  (bucket),  Aepfel  or  Simri.  It  will  be  seen  that 
in  cultivated  languages  there  is  a  sort  of  double  current  of 
development,  one  of  the  direct  mode  of  expression,  the 
other  of  the  indirect  or  figurative.  In  the  last  analysis  all 
words  used  to  describe  mental  acts  and  states  are  borrowed 
from  such  as  once  designated  operations  performed  by  the 
body :  in  some  cases  the  same  word  still  has  both  func- 
tions. 

It  yet  remains  to  consider  another  factor  that  contributes 
to  the  perspicuity  of  language.  The  facility  with  which 
an  expression  is  comprehended  and  therefore  its  force,  de- 
pends in  some  measure  upon  the  number  of  parts  that  en- 
ter into  it :  the  fewer  these  are  the  stronger  it  is.  A  single 
word  is  more  graphic  than  a  combination  of  two  or  three 
or  more.  German  poetry  is  full  of  compounds,  made  for 
the  occasion,  that  would  hardly  be  used  in  prose ;  and  the 
same  is  true,  though  to  a  less  extent,  of  English  poetry. 
Translators  from  German  or  Greek  into  English  are  con- 
stantly tempted  to  transfer  compounds,  which  the  genius 
of  the  latter  tongue,  owing  to  French  influence,  scarcely 
admits.  One  of  the  chief  elements  of  strength  in  the  Ger- 
man is  the  facility  with  which  compounds  of  almost  any 
length  can  be  formed.  When  carried  to  excess,  as  the 
Germans  themselves  not  unfrequently  do,  it  leads  to 
heaviness  of  style,  though  it  can  not  be  said  to  produce 
obscurity. 

In  direct    contrast   to   what  has   been   said   regarding 


144  A'History  of  the  German  Language 

the  preference  of  words  on  account  of  clearness  and  the 
rejection  of  such  as  would  lead  to  obscurity,  circumstances 
sometimes  arise  where  an  expressson  is  preferred  for  the 
sole  reason  that  it  is  not  likely  to  be  understood.  Talley- 
rand was  right,  in  part,  when  he  said  language  was  given 
to  man  to  enable  him  to  conceal  his  thoughts.  One  per- 
son may  have  occasion  to  address  another  in  the  presence 
of  a  third  person  whom  he  does  not  wish  to  understand 
what  he  is  communicating.  When  both  have  command 
of  but  a  single  language  it  must  be  so  transformed  as  to 
make  it  unintelligible  to  those  from  whom  it  is  deemed 
advisable  to  conceal  its  content.  Children  sometimes  in- 
vent a  kind  of  esoteric  speech  by  prefixing  a  syllable  to 
every  word  they  use,  while  on  the  other  hand  older  per- 
sons resort  to  similar  jugglery  to  tell  what  they  do  not 
wish  children  to  understand. 

No  class  employs  a  mode  of  speech  so  widely  dif- 
ferent from  that  in  ordinary  use  as  do  those  who  are 
associated  together  for  the  purpose  of  preying  upon  so- 
ciety. Such  a  class  exists  in  every  large  city  and  it  is 
greatly  to  their  interest  to  be  able  so  to  express  themselves 
as  not  to  be  understood  by  law-abiding  people. 

German  rogue's  slang  is  largely  made  up  of  corrupt  He- 
brew intermingled  with  words  from  the  gypsy  tongue,  to- 
gether with  such  terms  as  are  not  to  be  understood  in  their 
common  acceptation.  A  goose  may  be  called  a  flat  footer ; 
the  cheeks,  gills ;  the  hands,  either  fore-feet  or  paws. 
Sometimes  this  style  of  speech  is  highly  figurative,  as 
when  a  cunning  fellow  is  called  a  fox,  or  when  one  who  is 
hung  is  said  to  dance  in  the  air  ;  or  when  one  who  offers 
his  opinion  unasked  is  spoken  of  as  putting  in  his  oar. 
It  is  probable  that  such  a  mysterious  language  is  in  use  in 
every  large  city,  composed  in  the  main  on  the  same  prin- 
ciples, though  differing  somewhat  in  its  constituent  ele- 
ments. A  kind  of  aristocratic  desire  to  be  different  from 
ordinary  mortals  gives  the  language  of  sportsmen  a  some- 


A  History  of  the  German  Language  145 

what  unique  cast.  In  effect,  [sport  is  in  most  European 
countries  the  almost  exclusive  privilege  of  the  rich,  or  at 
least  of  those  who  have  money  to  spend  freely,  and  is 
rarely  indulged  in  by  those  who  labor  with  their  hands. 
Many  of  the  terms  here  used  are  a  part  of  the  language  of 
technology  and  have  a  peculiar  and  special  signification. 
There  is  further  exhibited  in  language  a  propensity  under 
certain  circumstances  to  the  use  of  words  which,  though 
intelligible,  are  vague  in  signification.  This  remark  is 
applicable  to  most  euphemisms.  Sometimes  single  words 
are  substituted  for  others,  as  unbekleidet  (unclad,  nude) 
for  nakt*  or  limbs  for  legs;  a  stupid  person  may  be  called 
innocent  or  unsophisticated ;  or  a  bore,  quiet,  uncommu- 
nicative, and  the  like.  Sometimes  circumlocutions  are 
used :  death  is  very  often  designated  in  this  manner  in  all 
languages.  This  style  of  expression  is  the  exact  opposite 
of  plainness  and  directness  of  speech.  Many  persons  who 
would  shudder  to  use  oaths,  nevertheless  make  use  of 
words  that  are  substantially  the  same  thing,  though  in  a 
form  recognizable  only  to  those  who  are  familiar  with  their 
history.  Darn,  dickens,  de'il,  deuce,  are  examples  of  this 
sort.  If  we  trace  the  history  of  certain  words  in  all  civil- 
ized languages  we  shall  find  that  they  exhibit  a  downward 
progress  in  the  moral  scale.  This  may  be  readily  seen  by 
an  examination  of  such  English  terms  as  wretch,  skeptic, 
miscreant,  wench,  and  villain.  The  German  Dime  was 
originally  equivalent  to  maiden,  and  might  with  entire 
propriety  be  applied  even  to  the  Virgin  Mary ;  now  it 
means  "  harlot."  Freeh  at  one  time  meant  spirited  ;  now 
it  signifies  "  froward  "  or  "  impertinent."  Geil  was  equal 
to  frohlich  (joyous);  its  present  sense  is  "lascivious." 
Wicht  was  beforetime  the  designation  of  "  thing  "  in  gen- 
eral, and  is  still  used  in  a  slightly  different  sense  in  the 
Eng.  "wight;"  now  its  usual  sense  is  "rogue."  In  all 
these  instances  a  possible  quality  of  the  object  gradually 
usurped  the  entire  meaning  of  the  word.  An  opposite 


146  A  History  of  the  German  Language 

propensity  is  exhibited  in  the  names  originally  given  in 
derision  to  sects  and  political  parties. 

There  is  in  the  nature  of  language  and  the  objects  for 
which  it  exists  no  justification  for  the  adumbration  of  the 
meaning  of  words  and  phrases  just  discussed.     It  is  in 
part,  at  least,  explicable  by  the  development  of  the  ethical 
consciousness.      Men  have  gradually  become    averse   to 
taking  in  vain  and  to  using  on  every  occasion  the  name  of 
that  which  is  sacred,  and  seek  to  avoid,  in  refined  society, 
the  mention  of  what  is    disagreeable.      The   heroes   of 
Homer  do  not  hesitate  to  exhibit  on  every  occasion  their 
most  intense  feelings ;  the  modern  hero  strives  to  conceal 
them.     There  is  also  a  sort  of  superstitious  fear  in  the 
minds  of  many  persons  lest  to  name  the  Evil  One  may 
cause  him  to  appear.     The  supposed  power  of  the  words 
used  in  incantations  is  well  known.     There  is,  moreover, 
a  disposition  on  the  part  of  cultivated  persons  to  avoid  the 
manners  and  customs  of  the  uncultured,  which  extends 
even  to  language.    Not  only  the  life  and  thought  of  the  two 
classes  are  different,  but  also  their  modes  of  expression. 
Again,  language  that  is  adequate  for  the  ordinary  occa- 
sions is  often  too  tame  and  commonplace  under  unusual 
circumstances — in   solemn   moments,   in   the    sanctuary, 
under  strong  emotion.     Hence  has  arisen  the  language  of 
politeness,  the  phraseology  of  law  and  diplomacy,  and  the 
diction  of  poetry. 

The  same  concept  may  thus  find  utterance  in  one  of  two 
or  more  possible  words  or  phrases  that  differ  widely  in 
their  social  value.  Compare,  for  example,  Schmutz  with 
Dreck;  Mund  with  Maul  and  Gosche;  Ross  with  Pferd 
and  Gaul;  Haupt  with  Kopf  and  Schddel;  abscheiden  with 
sterben,  hingehen,  krepieren,  verrecken ;  and  many  more. 

The  language  of  jurisprudence  and  diplomacy  is  char- 
acterized by  a  certain  rigidity  and  formalism,  for  reasons 
already  set  forth.  Besides,  as  dignity  is  naturally  asso- 
ciated in  the  minds  of  men  with  age,  the  solemnity  and 


A  History  of  the  German  Language  147 

importance  of  an  occasion  is  enhanced  when  the  speakers 
employ  a  mode  of  speech  that  has  the  sanction  of  imme- 
morial usage.  A  familiar  illustration  of  this  may  be  seen 
in  the  prayers  in  a  language  with  which  those  using  them 
are  totally  unacquainted.  Age  is  supposed  to  give  them 
an  efficiency  which  would  be  wanting  if  they  were  trans- 
lated into  the  language  of  every-day  life.  But  compre- 
hension is  often  rendered  difficult  when  the  language  of 
former  times  is  employed  in  speaking  of  the  present;  and 
the  difficulty  may  inhere  in  the  individual  words,  or  in  the 
structure  of  the  sentences. 

The  valedictory  address  to  the  imperial  diet  of  1518  be- 
gins as  follows :  "  We,  by  the  grace  of  God,  Roman  em- 
peror elect,  at  all  times  augmenter  of  his  realm,  etc.,  pro- 
claim by  this  letter  and  make  known  to  each  and  every 
one,  after  we  as  elect  Roman  emperor,  governor  and  pro- 
tector of  Christendom,  with  solicitude  have  noted  and 
taken  to  heart  the  tumults  and  disorders,  which  do  more 
and  more,  as  time  advances,  manifest  themselves  in  all 
parts  of  the  empire,  and  the  weighty  and  obligatory  af- 
fairs of  all  Christendom,  of  our  holy  faith  and  the  German 
nation,  with  what  annoyance  the  enemy  of  Christ  our 
Lord  and  Savior,  the  Turk,  strives  daily  to  oppress  and 
destroy  our  faith  and  the  universal  Christian  church  and 
for  this  reason  has  caused  our  legates  and  those  of  all 
Christian  kings  and  potentates  to  come  to  his  Holiness  the 
Pope,  to  take  counsel  together  and  to  determine  how  re- 
sistance may  be  successfully  made  to  such  nefarious 
schemes  and  projects  and,  further,  from  the  same  and  other 
determining  motives  have  decided  upon  an  imperial  diet  in 
our  city  and  that  of  the  Holy  Empire,  Augsburg,  purpos- 
ing, together  with  the  estates  of  the  Holy  Empire,  in  the 
same  empire,  to  take  counsel  and  adjudicate  upon  the  se- 
ditions of  our  estates  and  of  the  German  nation,  the  wants 
and  disorders,  unity  and  peace,  in  virtue  of  the  written 
authority  of  our  estates  authorized  at  the  last  imperial  diet 


148  A  History  of  the  German  Language 

held  in  Mainz  and  what  further  may  be  necessary  in  order 
that  such  sedition,  wants  and  disorders  may  be  put  an  end 
to;  and  that  affairs  may  be  placed  in  a  permanent  and 
commendable  state,  to  the  end  that  there  may  result  effi- 
cient aid  against  the  Turk,  for  the  rescue  of  our  Holy 
faith." 

The  object  of  the  above  translation  has  been  to  exhibit  the  lumber- 
ing style  of  the  German  just  previous  to  the  reforms  instituted  by 
Luther,  rather  than  to  put  the  extract  into  good  English.  For 
the  benefit  of  those  who  are  interested  in  the  original  it  is  also 
given: 

"  Wir  Maximilian  von  Gottes  Gnaden,  erwahlter  Romischer  Kayser,  zu 
alien  Zeiten  Mehrer  desz  Reichs,  etc.,  Bekennen  offentlich  mil  diesem 
Brief,  und  thun  kund  allermanniglich,  nachdem  Wir,  als  erwahlter 
Romischer  Kayser,  Vogt  und  Schirm-Herr  der  Christenheit,  ausz  Christ- 
lichem  Gemiith  betracht,  und  zu  Herzen  gefaszt,  die  Emporungen  und  Ge- 
brechen,  so  sich  allenthalben  im  Reich  je  langer  je  mehr  erzeigen,  auch  die 
schwere  und  obliegende  Sachen  gemeiner  Christenheit,  unsers  Heiligen 
XJlaubens  und  Teutschen  Nation,  mit  was  Anfechtung  der  Feind  Christi, 
unsers  Herrn  und  Seligmachers,  der  Turk,  unsern  Glauben  und  gemeine 
Christliche  Kirch  zu  benothigen  und  unter  zu  driicken,  sich  taglich  iibet, 
und  deszhalben  hievor  verfiigt  das  Unser  und  aller  christlichen  konige 
und  Potentaten  Bottschaften,  zu  Pabstlicher  Heiligkeit  kommen  sind, 
zu  rathschlagen  und  zu  beschlieszen,  wie  solchen  erschrecklichen  Obliegen 
und  Furnehmen,  Rath  und  Widerstand  beschehen  mag,  und  ferner 
ausz  denselben  und  anderer  bewtfglichen  Ursachen  einen  Reichstag 
in  Unser  und  desz  heiligen  Reichs  Stadt  Augspurg  fiirgenommen, 
der  Meynung  mit  desz  Heil.  Reichs  Standen,  in  desselben  Reichs,  seiner 
Stand  und  Teutschen  Nation  Emporung,  auch  Mangel  und  Gebrechen 
Rechtens,  Einigkeit  und  Friedens,  laut  der  Stand  Schrifft,  auf  nechst- 
gehaltenen  Reichs-Tag  zu  Mayntz  ausgangen,  und  was  ferner  die 
Nothdurfft  erfordert,  zu  rathschlagen  und  zu  handeln,  damit  solche 
Emporung,  Mangel  und  Gebrechen  abgestellt,  und  in  gut  loblich  bestandig 
Wesen  gebracht  werden,  und  daraus  eine  ausztraglich  Hiilff  wider  den 
Tiirken,  zu  Rettung  unsers  Heil.  Glaubens,  folgen  mag." 

The  language  of  politeness  like  the  arts  of  civility  has 
for  its  object  to  promote  the  social  intercourse  between 
man  and  his  fellow-man,  and  to  make  it  as  attractive  and 
agreeable  as  possible.  It  originates  in  the  desire  to  say 
what  is  pleasing,  but  has  nevertheless  a  clearly  marked 
sphere,  and  therefore  a  sort  of  technical  character.  It 


A  History  of  the  German  Language  149 

proceeds  mainly  upon  the  assumption  that  one  person 
should  always  show  to  another  the  evidence  of  his  esteem, 
either  by  enhancing  the  importance  of  him  who  is  spoken 
to,  or  humbling  one's  self.  This  may  be  done  either  by 
expressions  of  good-will  in  general,  or  by  demonstrations 
of  joy  at  seeing  another,  or  by  expressing  the  hope 
of  soon  meeting  him  again.  Society  has,  however,  not 
left  it  to  each  individual  to  decide  with  what  degree  of 
esteem  he  shall  regard  his  fellow-man.  It  has  established 
a  particular  style  of  address  for  particular  persons  and  for 
special  circumstances.  The  language  of  politeness  must, 
therefore,  of  necessity  have  a  kind  of  fixed  and  formal 
character.  It  is  a  matter  of  little  moment  to  the  historian 
of  language,  nor  has  it  any  relevancy  to  the  question  of 
,  morals,  whether  the  sentiments  felt  correspond  with  the 
words  employed,  or  indeed  whether  the  language  used 
expresses  any  thought  at  all.  The  words  employed  in  the 
language  of  courtesy  may,  of  course,  give  utterance  to  the 
same  concepts  to  which  they  give  expression  when  the 
speaker  uses  them  with  perfect  freedom  ;  but  it  is  often 
the  case  that  these  appear  too  commonplace  on  occasions 
when  it  is  considered  good  form  to  employ  them,  and  this 
statement  is  true  not  merely  of  the  vocabulary  but  even 
of  the  syntax  of  common  speech.  Not  only  should  the 
general  mode  of  address  be  different,  but  one  should 
speak  in  a  different  way  of  himself.  The  most  character- 
istic divergence  from  the  language  of  every  day  life  is  the 
tendency  to  make  the  difference  in  rank  between  the 
speaker  and  person  addressed  as  great  as  possible,  to  the 
advantage  of  the  latter.  This  may  be  done  by  the  use  of 
the  plural  number  instead  of  the  singular.  The  speaker 
minifies  his  own  importance  by  using  'we'  instead  of  '  I,' 
thus  merging  himself  in  the  great  mass  of  mankind  ;  or 
magnifies  that  of  the  person  addressed  by  using  '  you ' 
instead  of  '  thou,'  as  if  he  were  in  the  presence  of  more 
than  a  single  individual,  or  the  speaker  may  omit  all  ref- 


150  A  History  of  the  German  Language 

erence  to  himself  by  the  omission  of  the  personal  pro- 
noun altogether.  This  form  of  address  is  used  in  the 
familiar  phrases,  "  thanks,"  "pray,"  "beg  pardon  ''  (danke, 
bitle),  for,  I  thank  you,  accept  my  thanks,  I  beg  your 
pardon.  Generally,  however,  this  style  of  speech  is  used 
because  of  its  brevity  and  because  the  words  not  expressed 
are  easily  understood.  Again,  the  person  addressed  may 
be  spoken  to,  as  one  not  present,  that  is,  in  the  third  per- 
son. It  is  customary  to  say  Euer  Gnaden,  E^^er  Hoheit 
(your  Grace,  your  Highness),  when  the  meaning  is  '  thy 
Grace,'  and  petitions  are  usually  presented,  not  in  the 
name  of  the  petitioner  personally,  but  "  your  humble  sub- 
scriber makes  bold  to  pray,"  etc.  The  use  of  er,  sie,  was 
originally  intended  to  mark  politely  the  difference  in 
social  station  which  the  speaker  felt  in  the  presence  of  the 
person  spoken  to  ;  but  now,  conversely,  these  pronouns  are 
used  to  make  the  latter  realize  this  difference.  The  use 
of  the  third  person  in  direct  address  is  later  than  that  of 
the  plural,  and  belongs  to  the  N.  H.  G.  period ;  but  ir  (ye) 
instead  of  du  (thou)  is  a  trait  of  the  mediaeval  period. 

With  these  facts  the  reader  may  compare  the  frequent 
use  of  "  thy  servant,''  meaning  I  in  the  Bible,  and  the 
closing  formulas  still  employed  in  epistolary  correspond- 
ence and  elsewhere,  such  as  "your  most  obedient  servant/' 
and  so  on. 

The  latest,  and  in  some  respects  the  most  curious,  stage 
of  development  is  one  that  has  been  reached  by  the  Ger- 
man language  alone  in  the  assignment  of  equivalent 
values  to  the  plural  number  and  the  third  person — Sie 
haben  for  du  hast  of  the  ordinary  style  of  address.  Wie 
befehlen  der  Herr  Oberst?  means  Oberst,  was  befiehlst 
du  ?  This  Sie  haben  is  often  mistakenly  employed  for  er 
hat,  sie  hat  in  speaking  of  one  who  is  present  and  who 
would  be  directly  addressed  with  Sie  haben. 

In  the  category  of  professional  etiquette  belong  also  the 
epithets  "honorable,"  "his  honor,"  "reverend,"  etc.  All 


A  History  of  the  German  Language  151 

these  are  to  be  regarded  as  titles  accompanying  the  office, 
but  having  no  necessary  relation  to  the  office-holder ; 
though  it  is  natural  to  expect  that  a  man  who  has  been 
honored  by  election  or  appointment  to  an  honorable  office 
shall  himself  be  honorable.  This  is  by  no  means  always 
the  case,  as  abundant  experience  proves.  The  editorial 
"  we  ''  gives  a  fictitious  importance  to  the  person  using  it, 
as  if  the  writer  spoke  for  a  number  of  persons  besides  him- 
self. It  has  been  frequently  remarked  that  this  "  we  " 
carries  with  it  in  the  eyes  of  many,  much  more  weight  than 
the  simple  "  I,'1  though  both  usually  mean  exactly  the 
same  thing.  The  English  "  thou  "  is  now  rarely  used  ex- 
cept in  addressing  the  Deity ;  and  by  an  apparently  strange 
anomaly  the  German  du  is  used  in  the  same  way,  but 
likewise  in  conversation  with  familiar  friends. 

The  English  is  perhaps  the  most  democratic  of  modern  languages 
just  as  the  English-speaking  people  have  everywhere  made  the  near- 
est approach  to  a  pure  democracy  in  government,  and  there  are  but 
few  occasions  where  the  use  of  '  you  '  is  inadmissible.  The  ancients 
were,  at  least  in  point  of  language  more  modest  than  the  modern. 
Two  well-known  instances  are  furnished  by  the  personal  narratives 
of  Xenophon  and  Csesar ;  both  of  whom  uniformly  speak  of  them- 
selves in  the  third  person. 

Some  interesting  facts  in  the  history  and  use  of  pronouns  may  be 
found  in  Schele  De  Vere's  Studies  in  English  under  the  appropriate 
caption. 

But  it  is  in  poetic  composition  that  sesthetic  considera- 
tions produce  the  most  conspicuous  peculiarities  of  speech  : 
it  is  here  that  the  far-fetched,  the  affected  and  unusual  in 
expression  are  most  frequently  to  be  met  with.  Not  only 
is  the  vocabulary  often  uncommon,  but  the  composition 
and  the  order  of  words  differ  from  ordinary  prose.  It  is 
true  that  no  hard  and  fast  line  separates  prose  from  poetry, 
but  a  certain  class  of  objects  is  most  frequently  represent- 
ed in  one  than  in  the  other.  So  in  prose  we  find  du  lebst, 
er  lebt;  in  poetry  the  writer  is  allowed  to  choose  between 
these  forms  and  du  lebest,  er  lebet  (thou  livest,  he  liveth). 
Prose  prefers  hob,  geracht,  schwor,  webte,  wurde;  poetry, 


152  A  History  of  the  German  Language 

hub,  gerochen,  schwur,  wob  and  ward.  Such  plurals  as 
Bander,  Denkmaler,  Lander  belong  to  the  former ;  Bande, 
Denkmale,  Lande,  to  the  latter.  Abbreviations  like 
macht  'ge,  wedge,  Reu1,  klagf  are  admissible  only  in 
poetry.  To  it  alone  belong  such  forms  as  Herze,  Genosz, 
zurilcke,  mem,  dein,  for  meiner,  deiner,  desz  and  wesz  in- 
stead of  dessen,  wessen;  likewise  inniglich,  wonniglich  for 
the  shorter  prose  forms  inmg,  wonnig.  The  poets  give  us 
welch  Geti'tmmel,  ein  gliicklich  Land,  Roslein  rot,  gebraucht 
der  Zeit,  font  die  Glocke  Grabgesang,  and  they  generally 
avoid  the  insertion  of  clauses  between  the  article  and  the 
noun.  The  vocabulary  of  poetry  contains  comparatively 
few  loan-words,  and  to  it  alone  belong  such  words  as 
frevel  for  frevelhaft,  frommen,  gulden,  Hain,  Hindin, 
Mdhr,  Odem,  lind,  schwank,  siech,  zag,  while  such  as 
Erlebnisz,  Gesichtskreis,  deswegen,  derjenige,  Seelenruhe 
pertain  exclusively  to  the  province  of  prose.  Gemeine  is 
more  poetic  than  Gemeinde,  Fitttch  than  Flilgel,  Ross  than 
Pferd,  nahen  than  sich  n'dhern,  mehren,  zeugen,  zwingen 
than  vermehren,  erzeugen,  bezwingen. 

Generally  speaking,  poetry  represents  the  conservative 
elements  of  language ;  prose  its  progressive  and  growing 
force.  English  poets  like  their  German  brethren  are  fond 
of  employing  archaic  words  in  preference  to  those  in  every 
day  use ;  pure  Teutonic  in  preference  to  engrafted  words. 
Tennyson  exhibits  a  marked  predilection  for  the  older  words 
and  word-forms.  William  Barnes,  the  Dorsetshire  poet 
advocates  the  restoration  of  the  homely  Saxon  compounds 
in  many  cases  where  they  have  been  displaced  by  borrow- 
ed equivalents.  He  proposes  "fore-elders  "  for  ancestors; 
"  forewit "  for  prudence ;  "  inwit "  for  conscience  ;  "  wort- 
lore  "  for  botany ;  and  many  more.  In  some  cases  it  is 
difficult  to  give  a  reason  for  assigning  a  word  to  the  vocab- 
ulary of  poetry  rather  than  prose,  or  vice  versa ;  yet  few 
persons  will  deny  that  such  a  distinction  exists  in  all  lan- 
guages. But  it  is  well  to  remember  that  much  the  largest 


A  History  of  the  German  Language  153 

portion  of  verse-composition  can  not  with  any  propriety  be 
ranked  as  poetry.  The  gap  between  the  language  of  prose 
and  that  of  poetry  is  not  equally  wide  at  all  periods  in  the 
history  of  any  literature.  There  are  times  in  the  annals 
of  every  nation  when  it  places  little  value  on  works  of  the 
imagination.  Then,  too,  there  are  intrinsic  differences  in 
national  tastes.  The  Romans  produced  hardly  any  genu- 
ine national  poetry  at  any  time  ;  the  Greeks  comparatively 
little  of  genuine  merit  after  the  loss  of  their  independence. 
During  the  greater  part  of  the  seventeenth  century  poetry 
of  a  high  order  was  held  in  comparatively  little  esteem  in 
England,  and  during  this  period  German  poetry  had  sunk 
almost  to  the  level  of  prose.  For  about  two  centuries  be- 
ginning with  the  middle  of  the  sixteenth,  Germany  pro- 
duced hardly  any  literature  worthy  of  the  name.  Brokes 
(born  1680)  uses  such  expressions  as  "  das  Gehor  bezau- 
bernden  Gesang,  von  solchem  nach  der  Kunst  gekrduselten 
Geschwine" 

Contemporary  poets  often  differ  widely  as  regards  the 
interval  which  separates  their  writings  from  prose.  The 
court-romances  of  the  M.  H.  G.  period  are  much  more 
nearly  related  to  the  spoken  language  of  their  time  than 
the  popular  epics  of  the  same  era.  The  same  statement 
may  be  made  of  Otfried's  Harmony  of  the  Gospel  when 
compared  with  the  old  Saxon  Heliand,  which  was  prob- 
ably composed  but  little  earlier.  An  important  factor  is 
likewise  the  social  condition  of  the  poet.  If  he  belongs 
to  the  class  of  bards  or  professional  minstrels,  or  is  in 
familiar  intercourse  with  it,  the  influence  of  tradition  will 
be  much  more  marked  in  his  compositions  than  when  this 
is  not  the  case.  This  fact  will  account  for  the  divergence 
in  style  between  the  authors  of  the  Heliand,  the  Nibelun- 
gen  Lay  and  Gudrun,  on  the  one  hand,  and  Godfrey  of 
Strasburg  on  the  other. 

Purely  external  considerations  often  have  great  weight 
in  determining  the  language  of  poetic  composition.  What 
11 


154  A  Histoi-y  of  the  German  Language 

is  not  designed  to  be  read  either  publicly  or  in  private, 
but  to  be  recited,  generally  contains  a  large  number  of 
stereotyped  formulas  to  which  the  rhapsodist  may  have 
recourse  when  his  memory  is  at  fault,  or  when  there  is 
need  of  a  pause  as  a  sort  of  preparation  for  what  is  to  fol- 
low. The  poetry  of  the  old  German  gleemen  is  full  of 
such  standing  epithets.  The  epitheton  ornans  is  a  promi- 
nent characteristic  of  the  Homeric  poems.  The  ships  are 
designated  as  "hollow,"  the  storm  as  "  sweeping,"  and  the 
sea  as  "  barren  "  or  "  dark  blue  "  or  "  swarming."  We 
have  u  light-haired "  Menelaos,  the  "  discreet "  Tele- 
machos,  and  the  "  white-armed  "  Nausikaa ;  Mykenae  is 
the  "  golden,''  Pylos  the  "  sandy  "  and  Thebes  the  "  seven- 
gated."  Voss  a  contemporary  of  Goethe  mechanically 
imitates  Homeric  usage  in  this  respect  in  Luise,  although 
his  poem  was  composed  for  a  wholly  different  purpose; 
and  while  his  skill  as  a  translator,  especially  of  Homer,  has 
never  been  surpassed,  he  failed  to  achieve  permanent  fame 
as  an  original  poet.  Goethe  with  true  poetic  instinct  does 
not  employ  standing  epithets  to  describe  the  characters  of 
his  Hermann  and  Dorothea,  but  judiciously  varies  them 
to  suit  the  different  situations. 

As  the  old  Germanic  poetry  was  alliterative  the  need  of 
words  having  the  same  initial  sound  no  doubt  contributed 
much  to  the  development  of  frequently  occurring  epithets. 
The  number  of  words  of  this  class  required  was  much 
larger  than  is  necessary  to  satisfy  the  demands  of  modern 
rime.  This  becomes  easily  evident  upon  a  glance  at  the 
specimen  already  given.  On  the  other  hand  the  construc- 
tion of  modern  German  poetry  is  rendered  much  more 
difficult  by  reason  of  the  large  number  of  words  having 
more  than  two  syllables,  but  of  which  two  successive  syl- 
lables are  equally  accented.  For  example,  Leuchtwurm- 
chen,  Mcukafer,  Mondsckeibe,  and  many  others,  can. 
rarely,  if  at  all,  be  employed  in  poetic  diction,  and  when 
needed  their  place  must  be  supplied  by  substitutes.  Such 


A  History  of  the  German  Language  153 

English  compounds  as  death-dealing,  way-fating,  blood- 
thirsty ofier  a  similar  difficulty.  Sometimes  dignity  and 
congruence ;  or  in  other  words  aesthetic  appositeness  is 
intentionally  eschewed  by  writers  and  speakers.  A  coarse 
and  vulgar  expression  may  now  and  then  be  used  for  its 
own  sake.  This  trait  is  characteristic  of  students'  slang 
of  which  we  have  already  spoken.  With  a  designed  dis- 
regard of  the  rules  and  traditions  of  language  we  find  here 
Maul  used  for  Mund,  fressen  and  saufen  instead  of  essen 
and  trinken.  Euphemisms  are  rare.  When  vulgar  or 
trivial  words  are  used  in  close  connection  with  those  that 
express  emotions  of  sublimity ;  or  when  words  that  are 
almost  void  of  meaning  are  placed  alongside  of  such  as- 
are  weighty  and  significant  a  comic  effect  is  produced. 
Moritz  Busch,  a  popular  contemporary  writer,  is  in  the 
habit  of  employing  such  combinations  to  excite  the  risi- 
bilities of  his  readers.  Sustained  efforts  of  this  sort  give 
rise  to  what  is  usually  called  the  mock-heroic,  examples  of 
which  are  the  Battle  of  the  Frogs  and  Mice  by  Pigres,  in 
Greek  ;  the  Hudibras  of  Butler ;  the  Rape  of  the  Lock  by 
Pope,  and  the  Jobsiade  of  Kortum.  An  intentional  devia- 
tion from  linguistic  tradition,  or,  in  other  words,  a  viola- 
tion of  grammatical  rules,  sometimes  produces  a  comic" 
effect.  Such  expressions  as  "  bif  of  ditterance,"  "  we 
thunk,"  "  many  a  smile  he  smole  and  many  a  wink  he 
wunk,''  etc.,  will  illustrate  this  usage  from  the  English 
standpoint.  Irony,  or  the  employment  of  words  in  a  sense 
nearly  or  quite  the  contrary  of  their  usual  meaning,  alsa 
deserves  to  be  mentioned  as  one  of  the  forms  of  language. 
It  has  been  shown  in  a  former  section  that  the  laws  of 
logic  have  but  little  influence  on  the  formation  and  devel- 
opment of  language,  and  that  the  chief  object  sought  to 
be  attained  are  beauty  of  diction  and  ease  of  comprehen- 
sion. Still,  it  can  not  be  denied  that  a  species  of  applied 
logic,  what  may  be  called  the  theory  of  grammar,  has  had 
some  effect  on  the  N.  H.  G.  as  well  as  upon  all  cultivated 


156  A  History  of  the  German  Language 

languages.  So  far  as  the  German  is  concerned  the  labors 
of  Gottsched  and  Adelung,  the  former  of  whom  belonged 
to  the  earlier  part  of  the  eighteenth  century,  the  latter  to 
its  later  years,  have  not  been  altogether  fruitless. 


AMPLIFICATION  OF  THE  MATERIALS  OF  SPEECH. 

What  has  been  said  thus  far  has  had  special  reference  to 
the  causes  that  were  mainly  instrumental  in  producing 
changes  in  language  and  have  been  an  answer  to  the  ques- 
tion why  the  new  is  unceasingly  displacing  the  old.  It 
has  become  evident  from  the  study  of  particular  examples 
that  for  various  reasons  the  same  word  can  not  be  per- 
petually employed  in  one  and  the  same  sense.  It  behooves 
us  then  to  examine  the  relation  existing  between  vocables 
used  with  a  certain  signification  now  with  that  which  they 
had  in  the  earlier  periods  of  the  language,  and  how  it  is 
possible  by  means  of  the  same  word  to  awaken  one  con- 
cept at  one  time  and  a  different  one  at  another  time,  or,  to 
express  the  thought  otherwise,  how  can  a  word  undergo  a 
•change  of  meaning  during  the  period  of  its  existence  as 
an  integral  part  of  spoken  language?  And  again,  how 
shall  we  find  words  to  express  a  concept  of  which  we  are 
conscious  for  the  first  time  ?  The  answer  is  to  be  found 
in  the  study  of  any  cultivated  language ;  for  it  will  show 
that  old  words  have  undergone  a  gradual  transformation 
of  meaning,  and  that  new  ones  have  been  coined  to  desig- 
nate new  objects. 

CHANGE  OF  MEANING. 

When  an  existing  word  is  employed  in  a  new  significa- 
tion it  is  generally  the  case  that  no  formal  connection  ex- 
ists between  the  old  and  the  new  word.  The  speaker  then 
employs  one  with  which  the  hearer  is  already  familiar,  but 
in  a  different  sense.  If  however  he  expects  to  be  under- 
stood some  relation  must  exist  between  the  thought  to  be 
^communicated  and  the  word  to  be  used.  This  relation  be- 


A  History  of  the  German  Language  157 

tween  the  two  words  may  be  their  greater  or  less  simil- 
arity to  each  other.  We  have  no  difficulty  in  recognizing 
a  person  whose  portrait  we  have  seen.  The  delineation 
may  be  rude,  a  mere  outline  sketch  ;  yet  the  imagination 
easily  supplies  the  missing  traits.  In  like  manner  any 
concept  may  be  awakened  in  the  mind  by  another  concept 
that  bears  a  general  resemblance  to  it.  This  concept  may 
indicate  no  rnore  than  the  general  type  of  a  class  or  of  in- 
dividuals, provided  it  be  used  in  such  a  way  that  the  miss- 
ing parts  may  be  readily  called  to  mind.  For  example, 
Luther  says,  "  das  Wort  sie  sollen  lassen  stan"  in  speaking 
of  the  Word  of  the  Holy  Scriptures.  This  "  Word  "  is  em- 
ployed in  precisely  the  same  way  in  English.  In  like 
manner  Schrift  or  "  Scriptures  ''  is  used  for  the  contents 
of  the  Bible  though  it  simply  means  writings.  In  such 
expressions  as  "  er  geh'ort  der  Gesellschaft  an"  "  er  ist  von 
Famihe"  the  mind  readily  supplies  the  adjective  gut,  as 
the  speaker  intended  it  should.  Sitsen,  brummen,  spinnen 
are  frequently  used  in  the  sense  of  gefangen  sem;  machen 
as  we  have  seen  may  be  applied  to  a  great  number  of  acts. 
If  there  no  longer  exists  alongside  of  this  unliteral  and  in- 
direct meaning  one  that  is  literal  and  direct, — in  other 
words,  if  a  term  has  become  obsolete  in  one  or  more  senses 
we  say  that  its  signification  has  been  narrowed  or  particu- 
larized. It  may  be  said  of  civilized  languages  as  a  whole 
that  they  exhibit  a  tendency  toward  greater  definiteness 
in  the  meaning  of  their  words.  If  we  compare  Latin,  for 
example,  with  English  or  German,  it  is  often  impossible 
to  find  a  modern  equivalent  for  the  ancient  term.  Even 
in  the  same  language  the  difficulty  is  often  insurmount- 
able. Ecke  was  formerly  applied  to  anything  sharp  or 
pointed,  and  might  be  applied  to  the  edge  of  a  sword ; 
now  it  means  "  corner."  Gerben  (tan)  meant  simply  be- 
retten  and  had  no  reference  to  any  particular  object.  The 
Greek  o-wro&s  originally  meant  an  arrangement  of  any 
sort,  a  body  of  troops,  or  of  laws,  a  constitution,  and  it  was 


158  A  History  of  the  German  Language 

not  till  later  that  it  was  applied  to  the  arrangement  of  the 
words  in  a  sentence,  as  its  derivative  is  still  used  in  both 
German  and  English.  We  say  of  a  child  that  it  knows  its 
letters,  and  of  an  adult  that  he  is  a  man  of  letters ;  yet 
nobody  is  at  a  loss  for  a  moment  as  to  the  meaning  in  each 
case. 

If  we  wish  to  call  up  in  the  mind  of  a  child  the  concept 
of  a  dog  or  a  horse  we  can  do  so  by  showing  him  the  pic- 
ture of  either  of  these  animals.  The  apprehension  of 
their  essential  traits  is  not  rendered  defective  by  the  sight 
of  some  that  are  unessential ;  nor  is  the  mental  picture  of 
the  animal  made  less  vivid  by  the  rudeness  of  the  picture 
before  the  eye.  So  in  language,  the  naming  of  a  particu- 
lar characteristic  may  call  to  mind  the  concept  of  an  entire 
class  or  species.  The  German  word  holzen  (handle  wood) 
is  used  of  any  kind  of  a  fight  even  when  no  weaponsx)f 
wood  are  used,  just  as  bechern  (use  cups,  or  goblets)  is 
said  of  a  drinking  bout  from  mugs  as  well.  We  frequently 
say  of  a  man  that  he  drinks  too  much,  or  that  he  likes 
drink,  or  that  he  is  too  fond  of  his  cups,  when  we  have  in 
mind  only  drink  that  intoxicates. 

We  are  sometimes  reminded  of  one  person  by  the  sight 
of  another  ;  but  there  must  be  some  point  of  resemblance, 
however  slight,  between  the  two,  though  they  may  be  un- 
like in  every  other  particular.  What  is  true  of  objects 
presented  to  the  eye  is  equally  true  of  sounds  that  enter 
the  ear.  A  single  individual  may  awaken  the  reminis- 
cence of  an  entire  class.  But  in  such  cases  the  word 
class  must  be  understood  in  its  most  comprehensive 
sense,  for,  strictly  speaking,  a  class  or  genus  is  created 
whenever  we  discover  any  similarity  between  two  wholly 
different  things.  A  white  horse,  a  snow-drop,  Parian 
marble,  linen,  snow,  a  taper,  and  other  white  objects  form 
a  class  or  genus,  of  which  the  common  characteristic  is 
the  color,  just  as  much  as  do  horse,  ox,  and  hare  in  the 
genus  mammalia,  or  snow-drop,  lily  and  rose,  under  the 


A  History  of  the  German  Language  159 

general  class  phenogams.  The  same  object  may  generally 
be  ranged  under  several  categories  at  the  same  time.  But 
we  may  likewise  be  aware  that  divergences  exist  between 
different  classes  or  genera.  The  more  conspicuous  the 
qualities  are  upon  which  the  similarity  of  two  concepts 
rests  the  more  readily  they  are  observed  and  the  more 
easily  the  subordinate  elements  are  ranged  under  those 
that  are  of  a  more  general  character.  In  this  way  the 
mind  forms  categories  of  objects  that  are  evident  to  all 
and  become  a  matter  of  continuous  tradition.  When  the 
connection  between  two  objects  is  close  and  their  relation 
intimate  one  may  be  easily  and  unconsciously  exchanged 
for  the  other,  as  when  the  idea  of  time  is  common  to 
both.  In  some  of  the  current  German  dialects  the  word 
Mittag  is  also  used  in  the  sense  of  Nachmittag ;  in  others 
Abend  is  employed,  where  still  others  regard  Nachmittag 
as  the  proper  term.  In  the  South  German  dialects  the 
perfect  tense  has  entirely  displaced  the  older  imperfect, 
er  ist  gegangen,  er  ist  gekommen  mean  er  ging,  er  kam. 
In  French  there  is  an  evident  tendency  in  the  same  direc- 
tion. The  Latin  perfect  of  historic  times  is  both  a  per- 
fect and  an  aorist,  the  result  of  a  failure  to  distinguish 
between  two  different  forms  of  the  earlier  language. 

Again,  in  contemplating  an  action  we  may  fail  to  notice 
whether  it  originated  at  a  certain  point  or  took  place 
there  ;  for  this  reason  the  notions  of  active  and  passive  are 
sometimes  confounded  or  interchanged.  Thus,  heiszen 
was  originally  equivalent  to  einen  Namen  geben,  later,  to 
einen  Namen  besitzen,  haben.  Hence,  we  must  translate 
Ich  heisze  Peter,  my  name  is,  or  I  am  called,  Peter. 
Kehren,  treiben,  wenden  in  the  older  language  meant  no 
more  than  to  put  an  object  in  motion  ;  now  they  are  used 
in  a  number  of  different  senses.  It  is  correct  to  say  einen 
fahren,  but  formerly  the  verb  could  take  no  object  and 
was  used  like  the  English  '  fare '  which  is  virtually  the 
same  word.  The  participial  adjectives  in  ein  besonnener, 


160  A  History  of  the  German  Language 

ein  iiberlegter  Mensch  are  both  passive  in  form,  but  active 
in  signification.  Ein  Bedienter,  literally,  one  served,  is  one 
who  serves,  a  servant,  ein  Studterter  is  one  who  has  studied, 
though  in  strict  grammar  it  should  mean  one  who  has 
been  studied.  Similarly,  we  say  in  English  the  lesson  is 
learned  aftd  the  man  is  learned,  where  the  word  "  learned  " 
has  two  widely  different  meanings.  If  we  wish  to  render 
these  two  phrases  in  German  we  shall  have  to  translate 
the  first  learned  by  gelernt  and  the  second  by  gelehrt. 
Attention  has  already  been  called  to  the  fact  that  the 
German  as  well  as  the  English  dialects  make  no  distinc- 
tion between  lehren  (teach)  and  lernen  (learn). 

It  seems  to  be  natural  to  recognize  a  close  affinity  be- 
tween impressions  produced  on  the  sensorium  through  its 
different  organs.  Sensations  received  through  the  eye  are 
transferred  to  those  perceived  by  the  ear.  We  speak  of  a 
round  tone  or  the  dull  sound,  of  the  tones  of  color  as  loud 
or  soft.  Grell  and  hell,  now  referred  to  the  organ  of  sight 
or  hearing,  related  originally  to  the  ear  alone,  Grille 
(cricket)  and  Hall  (clang,  resonance)  being  connected  with 
these  words.  Siisz,  at  first  used  of  the  taste,  is  now  used 
of  the  taste  or  smell  or  sound.  Its  derivative  Geschmack 
like  our  "  taste  "  is  even  used  of  perceptions  by  the 
aesthetic  sense.  Impressions  received  through  the  sense 
of  touch  are  sometimes  applied  to  those  coming  originally 
through  that  of  hearing,  seeing  or  smelling :  bitter  means 
that  which  bites,  stinken  at  first  meant  that  which  pricks 
or  stings,  while  both  the  German  and  the  Englishman 
speak  of  tones  or  words  as  warm,  sharp,  pointed,  cutting, 
soft,  harsh,  rough,  and  so  on. 

Another  kind  of  interchange  between  different  categories 
of  concepts  takes  place  when  objects  primarily  designed 
for  one  use  are  spoken  of  as  if  intended  for  another.  The 
original  purpose  embodied  in  the  radical  form  of  the  word 
is  lost  sight  of,  in  the  transferred  meaning.  For  instance 
the  name  Streichholschen  is  still  applied  to  matches  made, 


A  History  of  the  German  Language  161 

not  of  wood,  but  of  wax,  just  as  Fensterschetbe  is  used  of 
panes  of  glass  that  are  not  round  but  of  some  other  shape. 
So  in  English  we  speak  of  an  ovation  or  of  an  inaugura- 
tion to  designate  ceremonies  that  have  nothing  to  do  with 
either  sheep  or  augurs.  A  vivid  impression  and  a  painful 
one  are  nearly  related.  Accordingly  many  intensive  adverbs 
are  derived  from  words  that  in  their  earlier  history  desig- 
nated feelings  of  pain.  "  Es  ist  grausam  kalt"  " es  ist 
schrecklich  heisz^  are  the  counterpart  of  the  English  "  it 
is  outrageously  cold,''  "  it  is  fearfully  hot ;"  es  dauert 
furchtbar  lang  is  our  "  it  lasts  dreadfully  long."  We  even 
hear  of  a  thing  being  "awfully  pretty,''  "awfully  good" 
or  "  awfully  nice."  The  word  sehr,  Eng.  sore,  originally 
meant  painful.  The  Scotch  "  sair  "  still  preserves  in  sound 
its  connection  with  the  German  while  such  expressions  as 
u  sore  need,"  "sorely  in  need''  show  clearly  the  original 
signification.  In  many  of  the  Middle  German  dialects 
oder  is  used  in  the  sense  of  aber,  the  notion  of  contrast  or 
opposition  in  both  leading  to  their  interchange. 

In  cases  where  the  close  connection  between  two  or 
more  concepts  is  not  made  evident  by  striking  points  of 
similarity  alongside  of  which  minor  divergences  are  lost 
sight  of,  in  other  words  where  resemblances  are  chiefly 
external,  they  give  rise  to  what  are  called  metaphors,  or 
metaphoric  language.  The  result  is  the  same  where  class 
distinctions  are  merely  casual  or  superficial  marks,  but 
where  nevertheless  the  relations  between  objects  and  their 
mental  concepts  are  not  entirely  hidden.  It  is  not  possi- 
ble, however,  to  draw  a  fine  line  of  demarcation  between 
the  examples  given  above  and  those  here  had  in  view,  as 
the  mental  processes  are  closely  akin.  Examples  are  end- 
less. The  same  designations  are  applied  to  lifeless  and 
living  objects.  The  human  form  suggests  many  compar- 
isons with  inanimate  things.  We  speak  of  the  head  of  a 
valley,  of  a  stream,  of  a  nail  (Nagelkopf) ;  of  a  neck  or  of 
a  tongue  of  land  (Landzunge) ;  of  an  arm  of  the  sea 


162  A  Hlstoi'y  of  the  German  Language 

(Meeresarm)  ;  of  the  leg  of  a  chair  (Stuhlbeiri),  and  so  on. 
The  process  is  reversed  when  the  head  is  called  a  pump- 
kin, a  gourd,  a  calabash  and  other  names  taken  from  in- 
animate objects.  The  German  word  Kopf  (head)  is  ety- 
mologically  related  to  Eng.  '  cup '  and  had  originally  very 
nearly  its  meaning.  The  Latin  word  '  testa,'  a  vessel  of 
burned  or  baked  clay,  has  in  part  furnished  the  Romance 
languages  with  their  word  for  '  head,'  '  caput,'  the  proper 
word  having  been  supplanted  by  it.  Other  familiar  Ger- 
man words  of  this  class  are  Brustkorb,  Herzkammer, 
Knieschetbe,  Becken,  etc. 

Designations  of  time  are  generally  named  from  concepts 
of  space.  Corresponding  to  the  English  '  point  of  time,' 
'  portion  of  time,'  '  piece  of  a  day,'  the  German  uses 
Zeitpnnkt,  Zeitraum,  eine  Spanne  Zeit,  Zeitabschnitt ;  um, 
nach  and  vor  originally  had  reference  only  to  space. 
The  notion  of  space  or  of  time  is  plainly  seen  in  expres- 
sions embodying  the  relation  of  cause  and  effect,  "  to  do  a 
thing  out  of  hatred  or  envy,"  "  to  die  from  fright,"  "to 
fall  from  grace  "  are  examples  under  this  head.  Wegen 
is  an  old  dative  plural  of  the  substantive  Weg,  whence  the 
older  phrase  von — wegen  ;  des  Geldes  wegen  accordingly 
means,  auf  den  Wegen  des  Geldes.  The  English  '  way  ' 
has  a  great  variety  of  similar  uses  in  both  the  singular  and 
plural  number,  as  "  by  way  of  making  amends,"  "  this  is 
nothing  out  of  the  way,"  "  in  a  business  way,"  "  always," 
and  so  on.  Weil  originally  had  a  temporal  signification, 
but  is  now  chiefly  causal,  as  may  be  seen  in  the  Eng. 
"  while ;"  and  is  a  sort  of  adverbial  case  of  Weile.  The 
Eng.  word  is  still  used  as  a  noun  and  a  verb  in  addition 
to  its  function  as  an  adverbial  conjunction,  as  may  be  seen 
in  '  a  long  while,'  '  to  while  away  the  time.' 

The  largest  number  of  metaphorical  expressions  belong 
to  the  class  in  which  mental  phenomena  are  described  in 
terms  that  were  originally  used  to  designate  purely  sensu- 
ous acts  or  experiences.  Such  words  are  einsehen  (see  into), 


A  History  of  the  German  Language  163 

erfassen  (grasp),  begreifen  (comprehend) r  vernehmen, 
Fassung,  Zustand,  Verhalten,  and  many  others  of  this 
character.  In  English  the  etymology  is  not  always  so 
transparent  because  Latin  derivatives  have  taken  the 
place  of  many  Germanic  words ;  but  these  when  carefullv 
examined  show  precisely  the  same  origin.  Returning 
again  to  the  German,  erinnem  means  bring  into ;  lehren 
is  to  bring  into  or  upon  the  way ;  goth.  '  laisjan,'  related  to 
Geleise ;  lernen,  to  be  brought  into  the  way,  and  the  prim- 
itive signification  of  befehlen  was  to  give  over.  Vernunft  is 
almost  equivalent  to  Vernehmen  and  is  from  the  same  root, 
— compare  with  it  the  Eng.  under-stand-ing.  AngstVfez.  the 
Eng.  '  anxious,' '  anxiety,'  and  Bangigkeit  are  based  on  the 
idea  of  pressing  or  bending.  List  (artifice),  which  in  the  M. 
H.  G.,  still  had  the  general  sense  of '  insight,'  is  connected 
with  lehren,  lernen,  Geleise.  The  Germans  say  of  insane  per- 
sons that  they  are  Verriickt,  that  is  moved  out  of  their  proper 
or  natural  state.  Our  word  '  insane  '  means  simply  '  un- 
sound,' and  might  logically  be  applied  to  those  who  are 
sick  in  body  as  well  as  to  those  who  are  sick  in  mind,  if 
usage  had  so  determined.  Persons  are  said  to  be  beside 
themselves  when  they  do  not  clearly  apprehend  what  they 
are  doing.  "  There  is  a  screw  loose  ''  is  a  thought  as  com- 
mon among  the  Germans  as  among  the  English.  '  Whim  ' 
is  probably  a  veiled  expression  for  a  buzzing  or  stirring  in 
the  head,  and  we  say  even  more  undisguisedly  "  he  has  a 
bee  in  his  bonnet,"  to  designate  about  the  same  cerebral 
condition.  Comparatively  few  proverbial  expressions  can 
be  literally  translated  from  one  language  into  another,  but 
the  similarity  of  concepts  underlying  them  is  remarkable. 
It  is  a  well  established  fact  in  the  life  and  growth  of  all 
languages  that  mental  processes  are  without  exception 
designated  from  acts  of  the  physical  body  or  from  occur- 
rences in  the  material  universe.  In  the  case  of  many 
metaphorical  expressions  transmitted  to  us  from  former 
times  it  is  not  always  easy  to  recognize  their  origin. 


164  A  History  of  the  German  Language 

Words  undergo  changes  in  form,  as  we  have  seen,  irr 
obedience  to  phonetic  laws ;  but  a  word  or  an  expression 
may  remain  unchanged  and  the  custom  out  of  which  it 
grew  pass  away.  The  Germans  still  say  Wir  haben  einen 
Span  wider  jemand,  because  in  olden  times  a  chip  or  flat 
piece  of  wood  was  used  to  cite  persons  before  a  judicial 
tribunal.  In  German  as  in  English  we  may  speak  of 
throwing  down  or  taking  up  the  gauntlet,  when  we  wish 
to  challenge  an  opponent  or  take  up  a  challenge  from  him. 
In  order  to  understand  the  etymological  meaning  of  Ange- 
binde,  something  bound  on  or  to,  we  need  to  remember 
that  it  was  once  customary  to  bind  a  birth-day  present  to 
the  arm  or  around  the  neck  of  a  child.  At  present  it  may 
be  used  of  any  gift.  The  Germans  say  einen  Korb  geben 
(give  a  basket)  just 'as  we  say  to  "give  the  mitten,"  be- 
cause formerly  the  maiden  let  fall  the  basket  in  which  an 
unacceptable  lover  wished  to  be  drawn  up  to  her  window, 
or  prepared  it  so  that  the  bottom  broke  out.  Silnden- 
register  is  explained  by  the  mediaeval  belief  that  the  devil 
kept  a  record  of  the  sins  of  each  person,  which  was  to  be 
presented  for  adjudication  after  death.  In  the  metaphor- 
ical expressions  above  cited  the  quality  in  which  the  cor- 
respondence rests  is  not  always  the  most  salient,  but  is  at 
least  one  that  is  not  irrelevant.  But  there  is  another 
group  of  concepts  in  which  certain  characteristics  appear- 
ing only  occasionally  form  the  basis  of  the  metaphor.  It 
is  thus  that  Mutter  chen,  mein  Sohn,  mein  Kind  are  used  as 
expressions  of  endearment,  very  much  like  the  Eng. 
"  mammy,"  "  sonny,"  "  sissy,"  etc.  In  some  dialects  a 
garrulous  woman  is  called  a  Schw'dtzfr abase  and  basen,  to 
act  the  aunt,  cousin,  means  simply  to  gossip.  In  Basel, 
Tochter  is  used  as  the  exact  equivalent  of  girl,  notwith- 
standing the  fact  that  there  are  many  aunts  who  know 
when  to  hold  their  tongues  and  that  there  are  many 
daughters  who  are  no  longer  maidens.  Sometimes  proper 
names  are  pressed  into  service  to  designate  certain  quali- 


A  History  of  the  German  Language  165 

-ties:  Hans,  Grete,  Peter,  Stoffel  and  T'ojfel,  both  abbre- 
viations of  Christophel,  are  terms  for  expressing  stupidity  ? 
just  as  we  call  an  Irishman  "Pat/'  a  servant  girl  "Bridget," 
a  Scotchman  "Sandy"  or  a  sailor  "Jack."  "Simple 
Simon,"  "Smart  Aleck,"  "country  Jake,"  "  Jack-of-all- 
trades,"  are  familiar  phrases  among  us.  A  Prahlhans  or  a 
Schmalhans  is  a  boaster,  though  there  are  many  persons 
who  boast,  bearing  other  names  than  Jack  or  John.  In 
Berlin  persons  who  are  better  known  on  account  of  their 
many  words  than  their  profound  thoughts  are  called 
Quaselfntze,  Quaselliese,  Quaselpeter ;  in  each  of  these  ap- 
pellations there  is  a  proper  name.  There  too,  a  dealer  in 
cigars  is  called  Ctgarrenfritze.  In  Basel  a  good-natured, 
stupid  fellow  is  known  as  Baschi  (Sebastian);  Johann  is 
the  common  designation  of  man-servant,  while  in  Paris  a 
certain  class  of  women  and  girls  is  called  grisettes, 
though  they  often  wear  garments  of  other  colors  than  gray. 
In  Lower  Austria  Leahnl  means  about  the  same  that  Kerl 
does  in  other  parts  of  Germany, — it  is  an  abbreviation  of 
Leonhardt.  Similarly,  we  speak  of  a  Bohemian,  a  Philis- 
tine, an  outlandish  fellow,  or  an  outlandish  act.  In  docu- 
ments of  the  fifteenth  century  occurs  the  term  Lazarus- 
mensch  to  designate  a  leper.  In  the  seventeenth  century 
"  to  dissect "  was  called  in  Leipzig  rolfingen,  because  a 
well  known  professor,  Rolfing,  practiced  this  art  in  that 
city.  Artificially  cut  and  trimmed  gardens  were  said  to 
be  lenotrized  from  the  name  of  the  French  architect 
Lenotre.  A  mischievious  trick  is  still  called  eine  Eulen- 
spiegelei,  from  the  name  of  a  noted  practical  joker  who  is 
reputed  to  have  lived  in  the  thirteenth  century  and  an  in- 
credible story  is  often  designated  as  a  Munchausen  tale. 

In  order  to  call  up  in  the  mind  the  complete  image  or 
representation  of  an  object  is  not  necessary  that  it  should 
be  designated  in  its  entirety.  Any  small  portion,  any  ob- 
ject that  bears  the  least  relation  to  it,  may  by  the  prin- 
ciple of  association,  awaken  a  long  train  of  concepts.  A 


166  A  History  of  the  German  Language 

myrtle  flower  may  call  up  in  the  mind  of  the  aged  woman 
her  bridal  wreath  in  which  it  was  entwined  ;  the  marriage 
festivities ;  the  table-talk  that  occurred  ;  and  the  parting 
words  of  her  parents,  all  of  which  may  come  vividly  be- 
fore her  mind's  eye.  Words  and  phrases  may  be  inter- 
changed when  the  substituted  concepts  bear  any  relation 
to  the  original  either  by  proximity  in  space  or  time,  or 
cause  and  effect.  Here,  too,  as  in  the  permutation  of  sim- 
ilar images  the  closeness  of  the  connection  is  not  always 
the  same.  Owing  to  the  presence  of  one  concept  the 
recollection  of  another  may  in  all  cases  and  almost  of 
necessity  be  present  also ;  or  the  association  may  be  occa- 
sional and  accidental.  When  we  hear  or  read  Schiller's 
"  er  zdhlt  die  Hdupter  seiner  Lieben, "  we  know  that  he  means 
not  only  the  heads  of  his  dear  ones,  but  the  beloved 
persons;  the  hospitable  roof,  the  hospitable  threshold,, 
are  often  used  for  the  entire  hospitable  dwelling. 
Dickkopf  (thick-head),  Gelbschnabel  (yellow-beak),  Lang- 
finger,  designate  beings  possessing  these  attributes. 
Kutte  (cowl)  and  Schiirze  (apron)  are  sometimes  used  as 
synonymous  with  monk  and  housewife.  Bench  and  bar 
often  mean  judges  and  lawyers.  In  the  peculiar  language 
of  German  students  Hausbesen  or  Zimmerbesen  designates 
the  maid  who  takes  care  of  their  rooms.  We  often  use 
the  name  of  a  place  when  we  are  thinking  of  the  persons 
who  assemble  there,  as  the  House  (of  Representatives),, 
the  Senate  chamber,  the  church,  the  court.  The  curious 
word  Frauenzimmer  originally  meant  just  what  the  sepa- 
rate parts  of  the  compound  would  make  it  to  mean,  a 
chamber  for  women ;  and  even  in  the  last  century  it  was 
used  to  designate  a  number  of  persons  of  the  female  sex. 
Bursche  the  popular  appellation  of  a  university-student 
comes  from  the  Latin  '  bursa,'  the  place  where  the  students 
dwelt  together.  Concepts  of  things  and  persons  and  acts 
and  circumstances  reciprocally  condition  each  other. 
Sometimes  an  object  suggests  a  quality,  then  in  time 


A  History  of  the  German  Language  167 

comes  to  be  substituted  for  it.  "  Heart "  is  thus  used  to- 
signify  "  courage,"  and  "  to  take  heart "  means  "  to  take 
courage."  The  keen  eye  and  the  strong  hand  of  a  man 
are  sometimes  extolled  to  express  in  another  way  the 
thought  that  he  can  see  far  and  hit  hard.  A  reenforce- 
ment  means  not  merely  the  act  of  reenforcing,  but  a  body 
of  men  sent  to  reenforce  others.  The  government,  as 
often  used,  is  synonymous  with  those  who  govern.  Ge- 
f'dngnisz  in  the  older  German  is  the  same  as  Gefangenschaft^ 
i.  e.  prison,  is  the  same  as  imprisonment.  Juvenile  frivol- 
ity and  youthful  recklessness  are  but  other  terms  for  friv- 
olous or  reckless  youths.  Says  Hebel,  "  schon  manchei 
Rausch  ist  seitdem  auf  den  Bergen  gewachsen,"  but  he  is 
thinking  of  the  grapes  from  which  the  wine  was  made 
that  produced  the  intoxication.  Holen  (fetch)  designated 
in  the  earlier  time  an  act  which  frequently  preceded  the 
bringing  of  an  object,  the  act  of  calling,  and  is  etymolog- 
ically  the  same  word  as  the  Greek  /caAeTv ;  lauschen  in  its 
primitive  sense  means  verborgen  sein;  and  verwegen  (rash) 
is  related  to  wdgen,  this  epithet  being  applicable  to  a  per- 
son who  has  mistakenly  weighed  his  powers  and  as  a  re- 
sult exhibits  over-confidence  in  himself.  Erschrecken  rad- 
ically signifies  to  '  start  up,'  as  may  be  seen  in  Heuschrecke 
(grasshopper,  hayhopper).  The  cause  is  named  from  the 
effect,  like  the  Homeric  <£o/3os,  the  flight  produced  by 
fear.  The  phrase  in  Harnisch  geraten  (get  into,  put  on 
one's  armor)  was  in  former  times  the  frequent  result  of 
getting  angry ;  it  is  still  used  in  the  latter  sense,  though 
the  use  of  armor  has  been  totally  discarded.  The  Ameri- 
canism "  to  put  on  the  war  paint  "  is  simply  a  metaphor- 
ical expression  for  preparing  to  attack  an  opponent,  and 
has  its  origin  in  the  custom  of  the  Indians  when  making 
ready  to  attack  an  enemy.  Uprightness,  honesty,  sim- 
plicity as  opposed  to  duplicity,  may  sometimes  be  the  re- 
sult of  dullness :  hence  a  stupid  person  may  be  called  a 
simpleton.  Occasionally  the  lack  of  moral  qualities  is 


168  A  History  of  the  German  Language 

designated  by  a  term  that  indicates  mental  weakness; 
thus  schlecht  primarily  means  schlicht  (plain,  straight- 
forward), as  may  be  seen  in  schlechthin,  schlechtweg^  schlecht 
und  recht. 

In  examining  the  development  of  words  and  the  meta- 
morphoses which  their  meanings  have  undergone  we  are 
confronted  with  a  variegated  and  sometimes  a  confused 
picture.  The  science  of  language  must  confine  itself 
wholly  to  what  is  past,  and  can  not,  like  some  of  the 
physical  sciences,  predict  what  will  happen  in  the  future. 
If  we  know  what  a  certain  word  signified  five  hundred  or 
a  thousand  years  ago,  it  will  give  us  no  more  than  a  clue 
to  its  present  signification.  The  various  possible  mean- 
ings not  only  run  parallel  to  each  other,  but  continually 
cross  each  other.  The  same  word  may  be  used  in  a  num- 
ber of  different  senses  at  the  same  time,  or  in  different 
periods  of  its  history.  Every  language  has  a  tolerably 
long  list  of  words  which  when  used  alone,  that  is,  with  no 
context,  are  likely  to  call  into  existence  a  number  of  dif- 
ferent concepts.  '  Head  '  is  a  word  of  this  class.  We  have 
already  spoken  of  Kopf  and  its  primitive  meaning.  Its 
modern  signification  as  the  equivalent  of  Haupt  is  the  re- 
sult of  a  two-fold  transfer.  At  first  the  skull,  because  of 
its  resemblance  to  a  cup,  was  called  Kopf;  next  this  part 
of  the  head  came  to  be  used  for  the  whole.  The  meta- 
phors originating  in  the  word  Kopf  as  the  equivalent  of 
Haupt  are  very  numerous,  such  as  Kehlkopf,  Krautkopf^ 
Balkenkopf,  Bergkopf,  Saulenkopf,  and  so  on,  almost  ad 
infinitnm.  Further,  the  head  alone  is  often  mentioned 
when  the  entire  body  is  meant,  a  herd  of  cattle  is  said  to 
consist  of  so  many  head ;  a  tax  is  generally  so  much  per 
head,  and  the  proverb  "so  viel  Kopfe,  so  viel  Sinne"  is 
familiar  to  all,  though  not  all  stop  to  consider  that  there 
is  needed  a  good  deal  more  than  heads,  if  there  are  to  be 
minds  or  opinions.  Kopf,  like  head,  is  often  used  to  des- 
ignate certain  mental  qualities,  just  as  the  heart  is  the 


A  History  of  the  German  Language  169 

synonym  for  others.  We  say  of  a  man  that  he  has  a  good 
head,  or  a  poor  head  ;  that  he  is  hard-headed  or  head-strong, 
or  that  he  has  a  head  of  his  own.  Parallel  to  these  phrases 
are  the  German,  er  hat  einen  eignen,  einen  guten,  einen 
harten  Kopf^  and  akin  to  them  are  such  compounds  as 
Hohlkopf,  Querkopf,  Schwachkopf  (numskull,  blockhead). 
The  Germans  even  go  so  far  as  to  say  er  hat  Kopf,  or  er  ist 
em  guter  Kopf  when  they  are  speaking  of  a  person  of  tal- 
ents. In  the  last  instance  we  have  a  triple  transfer  of 
meanings, — first,  from  a  cup  to  the  human  skull,  then 
from  the  skull  to  the  whole  head,  then  from  the  head  to 
the  entire  person.  When  we  compare  the  changes  in 
meaning  with  the  mutations  in  the  form  and  pronuncia- 
tions of  words  that  take  place  under  the  influence  of  anal- 
ogy we  find  that  in  both  cases  the  relation  between  form 
and  content  has  shifted,  and  from  the  same  cause.  When 
any  external  impression  upon  our  senses  makes  itself  felt 
in  consciousness,  it  awakens  earlier  impressions,  already 
therein,  provided  some  kind  of  relation  exists  between 
them.  Changes  in  pronunciation  are  the  effect  of  the  remi- 
niscence of  former  impressions  or  word-symbols ;  while 
changes  in  meaning  result  from  a  sort  of  confusion  between 
concepts  reciprocally  awakened.  It  has  been  remarked  in 
a  former  paragraph  that  in  the  transformation  of  words 
resulting  from  analogy,  its  influence  does  not  extend  to  all 
the  senses  in  which  a  word  may  be  used.  We  may  here 
call  attention  to  a  closely  allied  phenomenon,  that  the 
meaning  of  a  word  does  not  always  change  in  toto,  but  only 
in  certain  cases ;  in  others  not.  In  some  cases  the  form 
of  a  word  may  remain  virtually  the  same  through  a  long 
period  of  years,  while  its  meaning  undergoes  more  or  less 
important  modifications ;  in  others,  the  meaning  may  re- 
main unchanged,  in  spite  of  a  change  of  form.  In  the 
former  of  the  two  processes  of  development  above  referred 
to,  the  original,  or  at  least  earlier,  pronunciation  of  a  word 
is  preserved  in  isolated  examples,  and  in  the  latter,  a  kind 
12 


170  A  History  of  the  German  Language 

of  isolation  of  meaning  takes  place  in  which  certain  words 
preserve  a  more  primitive  signification  than  pertains  to 
them  in  their  general  sense.  It  is  usually  in  compounds, 
rhyming  couplets,  proverbial  expressions,  and  the  like  that 
the  old  meanings  survive.  In  Feuersbrunst  (conflagration) 
the  purely  sensuous  signification  of  Brunst  is  preserved, 
while  Brunst  alone  is  now  used  in  a  much  more  restricted 
sense.  Ding  originally  meant  a  judicial  procedure.  The 
Norwegian  supreme  legislative  body  is  still  called  stor- 
thing, "the  great  court."  From  its  earlier  meaning  it  is  easy 
to  see  how  bedingen  came  to  mean  "  make  terms  or  condi- 
tions," notwithstanding  the  fact  that  the  German  Ding 
and  the  Bng.  '  thing,'  now  have  a  widely  different  sense. 
Fahren  could  formerly  be  used  of  a  going  on  foot :  this 
signification  is  still  preserved  in  Wallfahrt.  The  older 
meaning  of  klein  (fine,  elegant)  is  retained  in  Kleinod,  to 
which  that  of  '  costly  '  was  afterward  added.  The  termi- 
nation -od  is  also  found  in  different  forms  in  Einode,  Ar- 
mut,  Monat,  Heimat,  and  corresponds  to  the  Latin  -atus 
found  in  such  words  as  '  magistratus,'  '  senatus.'  Leib  for- 
merly was  the  equivalent  of  the  modern  Leben,  so  that 
Leibrente  means  a  life-rent,  and  Leibzucht  a  livelihood. 
Leiche  at  one  time  meant  the  same  as  Korper,  whence 
Leichdorn  (corn).  The  Eng.  '  sweetmeats '  has  preserved 
the  earlier  meaning  of  meat  as  the  equivalent  of  food. 
The  "  meat  offering  "  of  the  ancient  Hebrews  contained 
no  flesh. 

This  word  Korper  readily  suggests  the  Latin  corpus, 
corporis,  from  which  it  is  derived  and  of  which  it  still  con- 
serves the  meaning.  Its  history  in  English  exhibits  ta 
some  extent  the  process  above  illustrated  by  means  of  sev- 
eral examples.  There  are  a  number  of  technical  phrases 
in  which  the  original  signification  is  retained,  such  as 
"  habeas  corpus,"  "  corpus  juris,"  etc.  But  the  deriva- 
tive corps  and  corpse  show  both  a  metamorphosis  of  form 
and  a  restriction  of  meaning  as  compared  with  the  Latin 


A  History  of  the  German  Language  171 

original.  In  Spenser's  time  '  corpse  '  meant  a  living  body ; 
consequently  it  underwent  a  change  of  meaning  almost 
exactly  similar  to  that  of  Leiche  touched  upon  above. 

We  have  already  seen  that  sometimes  the  same  verbal 
or  vocal  concept  may  have  several  meanings,  or  indeed,  a 
large  number,  while  it  is  equally  true  that  the  same  thing 
may  be  said,  the  same  concept  expressed,  in  two  or  more 
ways.  In  one  case  several  radii  proceed  from  the  same 
point,  in  the  others  they  converge  at  the  same  point.  As 
there  often  exist  alongside  of  the  metaphorical  or  figura- 
tive designation  of  concepts,  one  or  more  literal  designa- 
tions ;  or  there  may  be  several  metaphorical  designations 
for  the  same  thing,  it  follows  that,  by  a  transfer  of  mean- 
ings, several  words  may  develop  alongside  of  each  other, 
or  rather  parallel  to  each  other  in  sense,  that  however 
differ  more  widely  from  one  another  than  the  double  forms 
resulting  from  analogy.  In  other  words,  the  so-called 
synonyms  arise.  The  number  of  synonyms  in  existence 
for  the  various  concepts  that  may  be  called  into  existence 
varies  greatly.  The  simpler  any  phenomenon,  the  smaller 
the  number  of  variations  under  which  it  appears,  the  less, 
the  interest  it  has  for  mankind,  the  fewer  the  synonyms  by 
which  it  may  be  designated.  Luft  and  Wasser  as  names- 
of  elements  have,  strictly  speaking,  no  synonyms.  But 
phenomena  that  appear  in  a  great  variety  of  forms  ;  objects 
that  excite  humor  or  provoke  mirth  present  an  almost  end- 
less variety  of  points  of  view  from  whjch  they  may  be  re- 
garded, and  therefore  furnish  a  fertile  field  for  the  growth 
of  synonymous  expressions.  Words  and  phrases  to  desig- 
nate beating  or  fighting,  being  in  love,  and  cheating  are 
particularly  numerous.  But  perhaps  the  longest  list  of  all 
would  be  the  various  ways  to  designate  drinking  and 
being  drunk ;  it  is  probable  that  some  hundreds  could  be 
collected  from  the  different  German  dialects. 

But  even  synonyms  that  designate  virtually  the  same 
concept  may  vary  in  what  may  be  called  the  degree  of 


172  A  History  of  the  German  Language 

their  application:  that  is,  the  occasion,  the  mood  of  the 
speaker,  his  culture  and  education  determine  to  some  ex- 
tent the  exact  meaning  he  attaches  to  words  and  phrases. 
One  person  may,  when  employing  such  a  word  as  cheat 
or  deceive,  wish  to  convey  the  additional  idea  of  moral 
condemnation  ;  another  may  use  it  with  approval  because 
it  indicates  to  him  the  subsidiary  notion  of  shrewdness. 
The  same  word  may  be  used  under  precisely  similar  cir- 
cumstances with  a  slight  difference  of  meaning,  or  two 
words  may  be  used  in  exactly  the  same  sense,  merely  for 
the  sake  of  euphony.  Generally,  however,  this  state  of  a 
language  does  not  continue  long,  and  of  two  words  so  re- 
lated to  each  other  one  soon  becomes  obsolete. 

The  English  language,  owing  to  the  double  origin  of  its  vocabulary, 
is  somewhat  different  from  other  cultivated  tongues.  During  the 
period  of  its  formation  it  seems  to  have  been  necessary  to  use  "  yokes 
of  words,"  one  Saxon,  the  other  Norman-French  in  order  that  the 
one  might  make  the  other  intelligible.  Chaucer's  poems  are  full  of 
such  pairs;  and  even  in  Hooker  we  find  "cecity  and  blindness," 
"  nocive  and  hurtful,"  "sense  and  meaning,"  etc.  But  in  such  cases 
as  may  be  readily  seen,  one  of  the  two  words  has  become  obsolete,  or 
nearly  so,  and  is  only  found  in  writers  like  Carlyle,  who  purposely 
affect  a  style  having  an  archaic  flavor. 

Whenever  new  material  is  added  to  the  existing  verbal 
stock  of  a  language,  as  is  constantly  the  case,  by  a  trans- 
fer of  the  signification  of  existing  words,  an  earlier  concept 
or  group  of  concepts,  is  employed  in  a  slightly  different 
sense,  and  the  desired  representation  is  called  up  in  the 
mind  of  the  reader  or  hearer  through  the  relation  existing 
between  the  sensuous  concept  and  that  in  which  the  new 
word  stands  to  it.  But  the  converse  of  this  may  also  take 
place :  it  may  happen  that  the  connection  between  the  two 
meanings  is  not  at  once  evident  but  may  create  an  idea  of 
a  different  sort.  This  mode  of  calling  up  representations 
is  frequently  employed  in  jests,  the  point  of  which  de- 
pends on  the  double  sense  (double  entendre)  in  which  the 
word  or  phrase  may  be  understood.  When  the  German 
.says,  "  Er  hat  mehr  Gliick  als  Ferdinand,"  Fer  in  the 


A  History  of  the  German  Language  173 

proper  name  serves  to  call  up  in  the  mind  of  the  hearer, 
the  reminiscence  of  the  word  Verstand,  and  the  expression 
is  a  little  milder  than  if  the  words  were  used  which  the 
speaker  really  has  in  mind.  Similar  to  this  is  the  Eng- 
lish, "You  tell  a  li-kely  story.'1  It  is  sometimes  said  of  an 
avaricious  person,  "  Er  ist  von  Habsburg"  where  the  point 
of  the  remark  lies  in  the  similarity  between  the  first  syl- 
lable of  Habsburg,  and  the  verb  haben.  It  is  by  a  similar 
mental  process  that  Swift  connects  Jupiter  and  Jew  Peter, 
Andromache  with  Andrew  Mackey,  and  Peloponnesus 
with  Pail-up-and-ease-us.  German  jest  books  contain 
many  names  of  places  etymologically  connected  with  the 
qualities  from  which  their  inhabitants  are  supposed  to  be 
chiefly  known.  On  the  whole,  however,  this  mode  of  sub- 
stituting one  word  for  another  is  comparatively  rare  in 
comparison  with  that  growing  out  of  a  real  change  of 
meaning.  We  shall  see  further  on  how  words  often  come 
to  be  substituted  for  others  on  account  of  resemblance  or 
similarity  of  sound,  and  thus  lead  to  the  coinage  of  en- 
tirely new  ones. 

A  Glossary  of  Old  English  Bible  Words,  by  Eastwood  and 
Wright,  is  a  volume  of  several  hundred  pages,  devoted  to  a  dis- 
cussion of  words  that  have  gone  entirely  out  of  current  use,  or  are 
now  employed  in  a  sense  different  from  that  of  three  or  four  centu- 
ries ago.  As  most  English-speaking  people  are  accustomed  to  the 
phraseology  of  the  Bible  from  childhood,  the  changes  are  less  notice- 
able here  than  elsewhere.  A  modern  history,  for  instance,  written 
in  the  language  of  the  sixteenth  century,  would  strike  any  one  as  a 
singular  piece  of  composition.  It  should  be  remembered,  too,  that 
in  both  English  and  German  we  often  do  not  have  the  continuous 
history  of  a  word,  and  are  not,  therefore,  in  position  to  follow  the 
gradual  transformation  of  meaning  it  underwent.  The  careful  ob- 
server of  the  speech  of  old  people,  especially  of  native  Englishmen, 
or  of  those  who  are  comparatively  uneducated,  may  often  notice  words 
and  forms  of  expression  that  are  no  longer  used  in  the  written  lan- 
guage. Nearly  all  these,  however,  still  flourish  in  the  dialects  of  the 
different  districts  of  England.  The  same  statement  is  true  of  all  the 
countries  of  Europe,  whose  language  has  had  a  continuous  literary 
culture  for  several  centuries. 


174  A  History  of  the  German  Language 

THE  COINAGE  OF    NEW  WORDS. 

Daily  experience  and  frequent  observation  teach  us  that 
new  words  may  be  formed  by  the  combination  of  existing 
ones.  Two  words  are  united  to  form  a  third  in  which  the 
separate  percepts  or  concepts  are  each  embodied  in  the 
new  compound.  This  method  of  compounding  words 
may  be  of  two  kinds.  By  the  one,  both  concepts  are  rec- 
ognized as  co-ordinate,  and  when  placed  alongside  of  each 
other  hold  about  the  same  relation  to  one  another  that 
they  would  have  if  united  by  means  of  a  conjunction. 
We  have  here  accordingly  a  case  of  simple  addition. 
This  earliest  and  simplest  method  of  forming  compounds 
has  in  historical  times  become  rare  in  the  German  lan- 
guage. In  the  oldest  Teutonic  one  could  say  sunvader^ 
meaning  "  son  and  father."  At  present  such  combina- 
tions exist  only  in  the  numerals  from  dreizehn  to  neunzehn 
and  such  adjectives  as  bittersiisz,  blaugri'm,  helldunkel, 
etc.  By  the  other,  the  two  ideas  are  marked  as  unequal 
in  rank,  one  being  regarded  as  essential,  the  other  as  un- 
essential or  qualificative ;  the  essential  word  designates 
the  class  or  genus  to  which  the  whole  belongs,  the  quali- 
fying word  the  sub-class.  The  proper  order  is  to  place  the 
less  important  term  first,  and  the  more  important  last. 
Gartenbaum  means  a  tree  that  grows  in  a  garden.  So 
steamboat  is  a  boat  propelled  by  steam.  In  such  cases 
the  task  of  the  hearer  is  not  as  simple  as  in  the  former 
sort  of  compounds  where  the  mode  of  composition  of  two 
equajly  plain  representations  easily  furnished  the  key  to 
the  intended  unity.  It  is  necessary  to  consider  to  what 
extent  the  areas,  so  to  speak,  indicated  by  the  two  sepa- 
rate words  overlap  each  other,  or  what  the  relation  existing 
between  them.  There  is  'a  wide  difference  between 
Gartenbaum  and  Banmgarten;  that  is,  between  a  tree 
growing  in  a  garden,  and  a  garden  full  of  trees,  an  orchard. 
The  relation  between  the  two  parts  of  Goldmensch  and 
Goldgr'dber  is  not  the  same ;  neither  is  it  in  Konigstiger 


A  History  of  the  German  Language  175 

as  compared  with  Komgssohn  and  Konigsmorder;  between 
Feuerwasser,  on  the  one  hand,  and  Feuertaufe  or  Feuer- 
schein  on  the  other ;  nor  between  Hollenstrafe  and  Hollen- 
Idrm.  Still  we  may  say  that  there  is  addition  even  in 
such  examples.  Butterbrod  is  made  of  bread  and  butter ; 
an  Altmeister  is  not  only  old  but  he  is  also  a  master ;  and 
a  Mannweib  unites  the  qualities  of  a  man  and  a  woman — 
we  might  even  say  she  was  man  and  woman  in  one  and 
the  same  individual.  But  the  addition  is  of  a  different 
sort  and  leads  to  a  real  unity,  a  perfect  fusion.  Werwolf 
means  a  wolf  that  could  assume  a  human  form,  or  a  man 
that  had  been  temporarily  transformed  into  a  wolf,  Wer 
being  the  Latin  '  vir,'  but  such  a  being  would  be  quite 
different  from  a  wolf  and  a  man.  In  the  course  of  time 
the  sense  of  unity  produced  by  a  word  often  grows 
stronger.  So  long  as  the  two  parts  of  a  word  can  also  be 
used  separately,  a  compound  into  which  they  enter  will 
produce  the  impression  that  the  amalgamation  is  not  en- 
tirely complete.  Examples,  however,  occur  where  two 
words  have  so  completely  coalesced  that  their  separate 
existence  has  ceased.  When  the  first  part  of  a  compound 
has  reached  such  a  state  it  is  generally  called  a  prefix,  as 
un-,  be-,  ent-,  ge-,  ver-,  etc.  Though  these  prefixes  no 
longer  exist  by  themselves  they  can  be  employed  in  the 
formation  of  new  compounds,  or  at  least,  of  new  combi- 
nations, for  it  is  not  strictly  correct  to  speak  of  composi- 
tion in  such  cases.  The  German  does  not  add  together 
un-  and  orthographisch  to  form  unorthographisch,  or  er- 
and  kapern  to  make  erkapern,  but  because  such  words  as 
unschon  and  unhold  exist  alongside  of  schon  and  hold,  or 
because  the  language  already  contains  erjagen  and 
erstreben  as  well  as  streben  and  jagen,  analogy  sanctions  un- 
orthographisch  no  less  than  orthographisch,  or  erkapern  as  a 
sort  of  derivative  of  kapern.  It  can  be  readily  seen  that 
the  English  furnishes  a  large  number  of  parallel  exam- 
ples. 


176  A  History  of  the  German  Language 

When  the  second  part  of  a  compound  word  ceases  to- 
exist  as  a  separate  entity  it  is  usually  called  a  suffix.  The 
syllable  -heit,  Eng.  -hood,  and  -head  was  originally  an  in- 
dependent word  meaning  form,  figure,  condition,  so  that 
Schonheit  was  the  equivalent  of  schone  Gestalt  (beautiful 
form).  The  adjectives  ending  in  -Itch  were  probably  sub- 
stantives in  prehistoric  times  since  this  suffix  is  the  old 
substantive  -lick  (body)  and  is  still  extant  in  Leiche  and 
Leichnam.  The  original  meaning  of  feindlich,  freiindlich 
was  accordingly  Feindesleib,  Freundesleib .  This  suffix, 
which  is  common  to  all  the  Teutonic  tongues,  appears  in 
Eng.  as  -like  and  -ly,  either  being  sometimes  admissible 
as  courtlike  or  courtly,  saintlike  or  saintly,  Godlike  or 
godly,  though  the  shorter  form  seems  to  be  gradually  dis- 
placing the  longer.  '  Like  '  is  substantially  the  A.-S.  lie, 
dative  or  instrumental,  lice,  so  that  saintly  means  etymo- 
logically,  with  or  in  the  form  or  body  of  a  saint.  '  Like  > 
has  a  separate  existence  in  Eng. ;  not  so  the  Ger.  -lick, 
which  in  its  modern  form  is  gleich.  We  know  further  that 
-haft,  -schaft  and  -turn  were  likewise  independent  words  at 
an  early  stage  of  the  language,  and  there  is  little  doubt 
that  the  same  is  true  of  all  words  used  in  the  formation  of 
derivatives.  This  -schaft  is  A.-S.  scipe,  and  -turn  is  the 
Eng.  -dom  found  in  such  words  as  '  friendship  '  and  '  Christ- 
endom.' If,  then,  syllables  like  the  foregoing,  that  no 
longer  exist  independently  continue  to  be  used  in  the  for- 
mation of  new  words,  these  can  hardly  in  strict  justice  be 
called  mere  derivative  appendages,  but  the  words  into 
which  they  enter  are  in  a  certain  sense  compounds  formed 
according  to  existing  models.  There  is  then,  in  reality, 
no  radical  difference  between  composites  with  prefixes  and 
such  derivatives  as  have  just  been  considered :  in  both 
cases  a  self-existent  word,  at  least  in  external  appearance, 
is  combined  with  part  or  parts  of  another.  But  it  is  not 
necessary  to  the  formation  of  new  words  that  they  be  com- 
posed of  such  as  already  exist,  although  there  is  no  doubt 


A  History  of  the  German  Language  177 

that  the  coinage  of  entirely  new  vocables  destined  to  gen- 
eral recognition  is  comparatively  rare.  Children  not  un- 
frequently  invent  names  for  objects  with  which  they  come 
in  contact.  Besides  the  words  thus  purposely  coined 
there  are  others  produced  almost  unwittingly  in  the  ef- 
fort to  imitate  the  speech  of  older  persons,  and  these 
often  continue  to  be  used  by  them  after  they  have  learned 
to  use  their  mother-tongue  with  a  considerable  degree  of 
correctness.  If  a  group  of  children  were  isolated  for  sev- 
eral years  there  is  no  doubt  that  they  would  invent  a  lan- 
guage of  their  own.  But  words,  in  order  to  make  them 
worthy  of  permanent  preservation,  must  supply  a  felt 
want,  in  which  case  they  will  secure  a  more  or  less  gen- 
eral recognition.  Many  a  word  coined  in  the  spirit  of  in- 
novation on  the  spur  of  the  moment  to  suit  the  occasion 
is  soon  forgotten  even  by  its  author,  because  he  hears  no 
one  else  repeat  it.  There  is  an  exceedingly  slight  de- 
mand for  new  words,  simply  because  the  stock  on  hand  is 
amply  sufficient  for  almost  every  actual  and  imaginary 
use.  We  have  apparently  in  the  English  word  "  dude," 
that  has  gained  remarkable  currency  within  the  last  half 
dozen  years,  an  example  of  spontaneous  coinage,  as  it  has 
no  discoverable  origin  or  traceable  ancestry.  "  High- 
falutin  ''  is  a  somewhat  similar  instance,  though  here  the 
model  was  probably  at  least  in  part  the  compound  '  high- 
flying,' to  which  it  is  allied  in  signification.  "  Boom  '* 
came  into  prominence  several  years  ago,  and  seems  to 
have  gained  a  permanent  place  in  the  English  vocabulary. 
The  history  of  these  words  is  similar  to  that  of  many  in 
the  German  and  in  all  other  civilized  languages. 

It  is  probable  that  within  the  historic  period  of  the 
German  new  words  have  been  coined  in  imitation  of 
existing  ones  and  endowed  with  related  significations. 
Such  a  vocable  as  trippeln  probably  gets  its  initial  sound 
from  traben,  trappen,  treten,  with  which  it  is  also  connected 
in  meaning.  The  termination  was  most  likely  patterned 


178  A  History  of  the  German  Language 

after  such  a  word  as  zippeln.  Zupfen  suggests  both  ziehen 
and  rupfen,  and  is  related  in  meaning  to  both  ;  schwirren 
and  klirren  seem  to  have  been  influenced  by  girren,  and 
knarren  by  schnarren.  Randal  is  modeled  after  Skandal.  It 
is  not  necessary  that  we  be  able  to  account  for  each  sep- 
arate sound  and  syllable  in  a  new  word  that  may  occur,  or 
that  it  has  been  previously  used  in  a  word  having  a  like 
meaning.  A  large  number  of  words  are  still  formed,  as 
they  have  been  continuously  throughout  the  past,  in  the 
same  manner  and  in  obedience  to  the  same  impulse  that 
called  words  into  existence  thousands  of  years  ago ;  it  is 
the  voluntary  imitation  of  sounds  occurring  in  nature,  the 
so-called  onomatopoiesis.  For  example,  bammeln,  bimmeln, 
patschen,  plumpsen,  klatschen  and  many  more,  are  quite 
recent  creations.  Often,  however,  it  is  difficult  to  deter- 
mine in  any  given  case  whether  a  word  is  an  intentional 
specimen  of  fresh  coinage  or  merely  the  modification  of 
existing  materials.  Eng.  '  clap,'  '  clash ;'  French  '  cla- 
quer,  claque,'  the  Teutonic  root  of  which  is  also  repre- 
sented in  klatschen  above,  are  doubtless  entirely  onomato- 
poetic,  plus  the  various  terminations,  while  such  a  word  as 
"  highfalutin  ''  is  only  in  part  original.  In  the  case  of  new 
words  that  have  no  relation  of  form  to  others  in  use  the  hearer 
has  generally  no  difficulty  in  divining  their  meaning,  for 
the  reason  that  they  are  a  sort  of  word-painting.  But  if 
new  material  is  added  or  used  that  has  no  evident  connec- 
tion with  or  relation  to  that  already  in  existence  and  there 
is  no  similarity  of  sound  to  suggest  the  meaning  to  the 
speaker  or  hearer  it  is  not  easy  to  discover  it ;  the  new 
word  must  be  learned  as  a  child  learns  a  language  from 
the  beginning.  The  German,  like  the  English,  has  re- 
ceived a  very  large  increment  of  this  sort  in  the  shape  of 
borrowed  and  adopted  words  from  other  languages.  But 
new  life  and  vigor  have  been  imparted  to  the  classic  lan- 
guage from  pure  German  sources.  This  has  been  brought 
about  in  part  by  the  introduction  of  words  from  the  dia- 


A  History  of  the  German  Language  179 

lects  :  Haller,  Lessing  and  Goethe,  of  set  purpose,  trans- 
ferred many  vocables  from  this  source  into  their  writings. 
In  some  cases,  too,  these  and  other  writers  reintroduced 
into  the  language  words  that  had  become  obsolete. 
Romanticism — the  recurrence  to  the  study  of  mediaeval 
times — and  the  historical  study  of  German  have  also  had 
considerable  influence.  The  stories  of  knight-errantry 
written  toward  the  close  of  the  last  century  and  the  his- 
torical novels  of  our  day,  particularly  those  of  SchefFel 
and  Freytag,  have  contributed  their  part.  Sir  Walter 
Scott's  writings  likewise  exercised  an  important  though 
indirect  influence  toward  the  same  end.  In  this  way  such 
antiquated  terms  as  Fehde  (feud),  Gau  (district),  Ger  (jave- 
lin), Hain  (copse),  Halle,  Hort  (hoard),  Kampe  (champion), 
and  Minne,  came  into  use  again  as  a  part  of  current 
speech.  The  boldest  innovator  was  Richard  Wagner 
(died  in  '83),  whose  style  is  otherwise  often  difficult  on 
account  of  the  extent  of  his  vocabulary,  and  is  made  still 
more  obscure  by  the  introduction  of  such  words  as  freis- 
lich  (schrecklich),  Friedel  (husband,  lover),  glau  (bright, 
stirring,  joyous),  neidlich  (neidiscli),  Nicker  ("Old  Nick") 
and  more  of  the  same  sort. 

This  genesis  and  decay  of  words ;  the  gradual  changes 
in  their  signification  and  the  various  modes  of  word-for- 
mation by  composition,  together  with  the  transformation 
in  sound  and  appearance  that  words  undergo  in  the  course 
of  their  history  exhibit  to  us  the  different  aspects  which 
the  German  language  presented  in  the  different  periods  of 
its  existence.  But  the  transitions  from  phase  to  phase  are 
very  gradual,  so  that  it  can  never  be  said,  one  period  ends 
here  and  another  era  begins  with  this  date.  Every  abso- 
lutely new  word  is  from  the  nature  of  the  case,  an  instan- 
taneous creation.  There  are  a  number  of  words  and 
phrases  to  the  genesis  of  which  a  tolerably  definite  date 
can  be  assigned.  Yet  this  only  means  that  certain  ex- 
pressions are  used  for  the  first  time  in  the  writings  of  a 


180 

given  author ;  but  these  may  have  been  in  oral  use  long 
before  it  occurred  to  any  one  to  write  them  down.  The 
number  of  periodicals  and  the  multifarious  interests  and 
tastes  represented  by  them  is  so  great  in  our  day  that  al- 
most all  words  and  expressions  orally  used  soon  find  their 
way  into  print.  Strictly  speaking,  a  definite  birth-year 
can  be  assigned  to  a  word  only  when  it  is  given  to  a  new 
discovery  or  invention  by  the  discoverer  or  inventor,  and 
such  words  are  generally  adaptations  from  some  other 
language,  as  telephone,  phonograph,  cablegram,  etc.  The 
modern  word  '  gas,'  is  a  good  example  of  new  coinage  in 
the  true  sense.  Its  discoverer,  Van  Helmont,  says  he  will 
call  the  newly  discovered  compound  '  gas,'  though  he  has 
furnished  no  clue  to  the  name.  It  is  probable,  however, 
that  he  had  in  mind  some  form  of  the  word  Geist,  ghost, 
or  geest.  With  the  introduction  of  the  thing  into  the  dif- 
ferent countries  of  the  civilized  world  the  name  also  made 
its  way.  Luther  designates  beherzigen,  ersprieszlicJi  and 
tugendreich  as  new  words  in  his  day.  Gehen  zvir,  nehmen 
wir'vn.  the  sense  of  wir  wollen  gehen,  zvir  wollen  nehmen  came 
into  use  in  the  last  century.  Lessing  seems  to  have  first 
employed  empfindsam  and  weincrlich;  Jahn,  turnen,  volkstum 
and  volkstiimlich ;  abrilsten  is  of  still  more  recent  origin. 
Durchblilhen  was  coined  by  Uhland.  But  the  decay  and 
ultimate  extinction  of  words  is  a  gradual  process,  just  as 
new  words  gain  currency  step  by  step.  In  some  cases  not 
all  the  parts  of  a  compound  word  pass  out  of  use  at  the 
same  time.  The  English  auxiliaries  are  now  more  or  less 
defective,  yet  it  is  almost  certain  that  at  an  early  period  of 
the  language  they  were  as  complete  as  any  other  verb. 
Most  of  the  missing  parts  can  still  be  supplied  from  the 
A.-S.  In  German  the  participles  of  a  number  of  verbs 
still  exist  as  adjectives,  though  the  verbs  themselves  have 
become  obsolete  :  among  these  are  aufgedunsen,  abgefeimt 
and  entruckt.  Sometimes  substantives  live  on  in  certain 
combinations  with  prepositions,  as  tn  die  Irre,  in  der  Irre 


A  History  of  the  German  Language  181 

gehen,  zu  Ruste  gehen.  In  the  second  part  of  Brautigam,  the 
Eng.  '  bridegroom  '  where  the  r  is  sporadic,  we  have  the 
Gothic  '  guma,'  later  '  gomo,'  Latin  4  homo ;'  in  Karjreitag, 
there  is  preserved  an  old  '  kara,'  complaint,  pain ;  and 
durchblauen  (drub)  has  no  connection  with  blau,  but  has  as 
its  verbal  part  an  obsolete  bleucn  (beat). 

But  again,  there  is  no  uniformity  in  the  manner  and 
rapidity  with  which  the  changes  in  the  different  depart- 
ments of  a  language  take  place.  Words  and  mean- 
ings that  in  one  locality  or  in  one  class  of  society  have 
long  fallen  into  desuetude  continue  in  current  use  in 
others.  Sailors,  for  example,  still  use  the  term  Wanten  to 
designate  knit  gloves,  an  old  German  word  preserved  in 
'  gant,'  '  guanto,'  the  modern  French  and  Italian  designa- 
tion for  gloves.  Many  archaic  words  are  also  found  in  the 
language  of  the  chase  ;  as,  for  instance,  abprosseh,  means 
to  bite  off  buds.  Here  we  have  a  reminiscence  of  the  M. 
H.  G.,  broz  (bud).  RaJimen  means  iiberholen,  and  is  from 
the  M.  H.  G.  ramen  (strive  after),  while  w'olfen  is  the  same 
as  gebaten  and  is  related  to  M.  H.  G.,  welf,  Eng.  •  whelp.' 

THE  INFLUENCE  OF   FOREIGN  LANGUAGES  ON  THE  GERMAN. 

The  language  of  a  people  mirrors  not  only  its  intellect- 
ual and  spiritual  development,  but  also,  in  a  large  measure, 
its  civilization  and  political  history.  By  using  language 
as  a  guiding  thread  we  may  find  what  intercourse  a  nation 
has  had  with  other  nations ;  what  influence  it  has  exerted 
on  them,  and  to  what  influences  it  has  in  turn  been  sub- 
ject ;  for  there  is  probably  no  language  in  existence  that 
has  not  taken  up  and  assimilated  foreign  elements  to  a 
greater  or  less  extent.  It  was  not  the  privilege  of  the 
German  people  to  work  out  their  own  destiny  free  from 
foreign  interference,  and  their  language  bears  abundant 
traces  along  the  course  of  its  entire  history  of  the  influence 
exerted  upon  it  by  the  various  nations  with  whom  they 
came  in  contact.  Notwithstanding  this  fact  there  is 


182  A  History  of  the  German  Language 

reason  to  believe  that  no  language  of  Western  Europe 
contains  so  large  a  proportion  of  words  of  native  stock  as 
the  German.  Still  the  question  is  one  to  which  it  is  at 
present  impossible  to  give  a  definite  answer.  Two  lan- 
guages may  come  into  contact  with  each  other  in  one  or 
more  different  ways.  There  may  be  a  direct  intercourse 
between  two  nations  speaking  different  languages  but  liv- 
ing in  territorial  contiguity  ;  or  one  nation  may  conquer 
the  lands  of  another  ajid  settle  upon  them,  or  a  country 
may  be  invaded  by  a  foreign  army  but  which  comes  with 
no  intention  of  remaining  permanently.  Instances  of  the 
first  are  common ;  the  conquest  of  Gaul  by  the  Romans 
and  of  England  by  the  Normans  are  familiar  instances  of 
the  second,  while  the  various  military  expeditions  of  the 
French  into  Germany  and  Italy  furnish  examples  of  the 
third  case.  Under  such  circumstances  the  number  of 
foreign  words  introduced  will  be  few  and  generally  of  a 
kind  that  designate  thoughts  and  things  with  which  the 
borrowers  were  hitherto  unacquainted.  They  belong  for 
the  most  part  to  the  class  of  substantives  ;  borrowed  verbs 
and  adjectives  are  comparatively  rare.  It  lies  in  the  nature 
of  the  case  that  almost  every  portion  of  the  earth  possesses 
objects  not  found  elsewhere  and  that  the  name  of  these 
objects  will  spread  hence  to  the  surrounding  nations.  But 
new  qualities  and  new  modes  of  action  will  rarely  be  met 
with. 

The  contact  of  one  language  with  another  is  not 
necessarily  the  result  of  intercourse  between  individuals 
and  through  the  medium  of  the  ear ;  it  may  be  purely  in- 
tellectual resulting  from  the  perusal  of  the  printed  page. 
When  contact  takes  place  in  the  way  first  indicated  only  a 
few  persons  are  generally  participants  and  the  number  of 
languages  is  necessarily  limited  to  two  or  at  most  to  three. 
But  their  reciprocal  influence  will  be  much  greater  than  in 
the  second  case.  Here  the  appropriation  of  foreign  words 
is  conscious  and  intentional,  usually  the  result  of  a  fair 


A  History  of  the  German  Language  183 

knowledge  of  the  language  from  which  the  appropriation 
is  made.  It  may  therefore  happen  that  persons  will  intro- 
duce into  their  native  speech  along  with  some  foreign 
words  that  are  a  real  gain  others  that  are  entirely  superflu- 
ous. As  a  foreign  language  is  always  of  later  acquisition 
than  the  mother  tongue  and  is,  moreover,  the  result  of  an 
effort  of  will,  some  of  its  words  and  phrases  enter  so  readily 
into  one's  consciousness  as  to  take  the  place  of  native 
words  that  are  adequate  and  equally  expressive.  Then 
too,  a  pride  of  knowledge  often  leads  to  the  use  of  foreign 
words.  Not  only  are  occasional  substantives  introduced 
but  even  verbs  and  adjectives.  Now  and  then  the  mode 
of  inflection  shows  traces  of  a  foreign  model ;  the  interior 
life  of  the  language  has  been  affected.  This  is  more  likely 
to  be  the  case  when  words  of  native  stock  have  for  some 
time  been  exposed  to  the  corrupting  influence  of  a  foreign 
tongue  and  retain  in  their  form  the  traces  of  that  influence. 
In  both  English  and  German  there  are  a  number  of  pure 
Teutonic  words  that  have  been  reintroduced  from  the 
French  but  which  still  bear  the  marks  of  their  sojourn 
among  foreigners.  A  word  may  be  coined  in  a  more  or 
less  close  imitation  of  a  foreign  word  to  express  a  concept 
for  which  no  native  word  exists,  or  at  least  is  known ;  or 
a  native  word  may  undergo  a  gradual  change  of  meaning 
under  foreign  influences ;  or  compounds  may  be  con- 
structed according  to  foreign  models  of  sentence-composi- 
tion. The  various  ways  here  spoken  of,  in  which  the 
language  of  a  people  has  been  instrumental  in  modifying 
that  of  another  are  for  the  most  part  impersonal  and  con- 
fined to  the  higher  classes.  Words  acquired  from  for- 
eigners through  direct  personal  intercourse  are  not  usually 
the  result  of  conscious  effort  or  intelligent  adaptation.  In 
this  case  the  influence  of  the  individual  counts  for  less 
than  in  the  former.  In  the  one  case  foreign  words  are  in- 
troduced by  the  educated  and  in  the  other,  appropriated 
by  the  illiterate  in  the  spirit  of  imitation.  The  earliest 


184  A  History  of  the  German  Language 

borrowings  are  those  that  result  from  the  contiguity  of 
settlements  of  two  nations  speaking  different  languages 
and  the  later  acquisitions — that  is,  those  that  grow  out  of 
the  systematic  study  of  a  foreign  tongue,  are  made  after  a 
higher  degree  of  civilization  and  a  more  advanced  stage 
of  culture  has  been  attained. 

The  German  language  has  taken  up  foreign  elements 
from  the  earliest  period  of  its  existence  —  or  at  least  from 
the  earliest  period  accessible  to  historical  research.  But, 
of  course,  the  nearer  we  approach  its  origin,  the  less  the . 
confidence  with  which  we  can  assert  the  extraneous  origin 
of  words  that  have  an  un-German  appearance ;  and  the 
difficulty  is  the  greater  because  in  many  cases  it  is  impos- 
sible to  discover,  in  regard  to  certain  words,  who  were  the 
borrowers  and  who  the  lenders ;  or  to  express  the  fact 
otherwise,  when  the  essential  parts  of  a  word  are  common 
to  two  languages,  it  is  often  difficult  to  decide  which  is  the 
older  when  we  have  no  other  means  of  determining  the 
relative  age  of  the  languages. 

The  oldest  words  adopted  by  the  German  are  names  of 
metals  and  cultivated  plants.  We  are  in  position  to  assert 
with  reasonable  confidence  that  silver  and  hemp  do  not 
bear  native  German  designations,  but  from  what  people 
they  were  borrowed  it  is  as  yet  impossible  to  say.  We 
can  form  only  more  or  less  plausible  conjectures.  Their 
adoption  must  have  taken  place  long  before  the  division 
of  the  primative  German  into  the  later  Germanic  dialects. 
Somewhat  subsequently,  but  nevertheless  still  in  the  pre- 
historic period,  the  Germans  came  in  contact  with  Finns 
and  Kelts.  That  there  must  have  been  considerable 
intercourse  between  Finns  and  Germans  is  evident  from 
the  unmistakable  traces  of  their  language  in  that  of  the 
former.  Some  of  these  adopted  words  have  undergone 
such  modifications  that  their  original  form  can  be  inferred 
only  from  the  application  of  the  phonetic  laws  of  the 
Teutonic.  The  influence  of  the  Finnish  upon  the  German 


A  History  of  the  German  Language  185 

has  left  but  faint  traces ;  from  which  we  may  safely 
assume  that  their  civilization  during  the  period  of  contact 
was  of  a  lower  type.  The  relations  between  the  Kelts  and 
Germans  were  more  intimate  and  of  longer  continuance ; 
in  fact,  it  was  Keltish  territory  upon  which  the  Southern 
and  Western  Germanic  tribes  planted  their  settlements. 
The  Keltic  background  is  plainly  seen  in  proper  names. 
Rhine,  Main,  Danube,  Melibocus,  Vosges,  Mainz,  Worms, 
of  which  the  Latin  forms  are  Rhenus,  Maenus,  Dan- 
ubius,  Maguntia,  Vogesus,  Borbetomagus,  are  names 
that  have  a  clearly  discernable  Keltic  ancestry.  Keltic 
names  are  likewise  of  frequent  occurrence  in  England, 
almost  every  river  bearing  an  appellative  that  still  retains 
traces  of  the  nomenclators  in  spite  of  subsequent  Roman 
and  Teutonic  invaders.  Isaac  Taylor,  in  his  "  Words  and 
Places,"  says :  "  Over  the  greater  part  of  Europe  —  in 
Germany,  France,  Italy,  Spain  —  we  find  villages  which 
bear  Teutonic  or  Romance  names,  standing  on  the  banks 
of  streams  which  still  retain  their  ancient  Celtic  appella- 
tions. Throughout  the  whole  of  England  there  is  hardly 
a  single  river-name  which  is  not  Celtic." 

One  of  the  most  remarkable  items  of  evidence  testifying 
to  Keltic  influence  is  the  German  word  retch.  Its  present 
meaning  is  'rich,'  but  it  originally  meant  'mighty'  or 
powerful;  a  trace  of  this  signification  is  still  present  in 
the  noun  Reich,  meaning  '  realm '  or  '  empire.'  The  word 
is  related  to  the  Latin  rex,  reg-num,  but  phonetic  laws 
prove  that  it  can  have  come  only  from  the  Keltic  into  the 
German.  Its  root  is  found  in  such  proper  names  as 
Dumnorix,  Vercingetorix,  from  which  it  would  appear 
that  even  in  political  matters  the  ancient  Germans  were 
not  entirely  outside  the  pale  of  Keltic  influence.  The 
words  Dime,  Falke,  Habicht  and  Pferch  are  likewise  sup- 
posed to  be  of  Keltic  ancestry,  and  have  their  living 
English  representatives  in  'down'  (a  plateau),  'falcon,' 
'  hawk '  and  '  park.'  The  influence  of  the  Latin  upon  the 
13 


186  A  History  of  the  German  Language 

German  may  likewise  be  traced  to  prehistoric  times.  It 
can  be  noticed  as  early  as  the  beginning  of  the  Christian 
era  and  continues  still.  But  it  differed  greatly  at  different 
times,  and  it  is  not  always  possible  to  determine  whether 
a  given  word  was  transferred  into  the  German  directly 
from  the  Latin,  or  indirectly,  by  way  of  a  Romance 
language.  The  earliest  loan-words  aie  popular  in  form, 
and  have  come  in  partly  through  the  early  intercourse 
between  Germany  and  Italy,  and  partly  by  way  of  the 
Roman  settlements  in  the  Southern  and  Western  por- 
tions of  Germany.  It  was  through  the  Romans  that  the 
Germans  first  made  the  acquaintance  of  a  number  of 
animals  and  plants.  Among  these  were  the  elephant,  the 
pea-cock  (Pfau},  the  fabulous  dragon  (Drachen},  the 
pear  (Birne),  the  fig  (Feige),  the  cherry  (Ktrsche),  the 
cole  or  caul  (Kohl\  the  gourd  (Kiitbis),  the  lily  (Lilie), 
the  almond  (Mandel),  the  mulbeny  (Maulbeere},  pep- 
per (Pfeffer),  the  radish  (Rettich},  the  rose  (Rose},  etc. 
Pflanze,  Frucht  and  Marmor  are  also  from  the  Latin. 

NOTE.— It  may  be  well  to  remind  the  reader  that  in  placing  to- 
gether several  words  because  they  are  related  it  is  not  intended  to  in- 
dicate anything  as  to  the  nearness  of  their  relationship.  For  example, 
dragon  and  Drachen  mean  the  same  thing  and  were  originally  the 
same  word,  though  the  former  is  only  indirectly  derived  from  the 
latter  through  the  medium  of  the  French.  A  direct  descendant  of 
Drachen  is  found  in  the  obsolete  drake-fly.  In  like  manner  Latin 
calx,  Ger.  kalk  and  Eng.  '  chalk '  are  the  same  word,  but  chalk  and 
calx  do  not  mean  the  same  thing.  The  resemblance  of  chalk  to 
lime  evidently  led  to  the  confusion  of  terms.  The  study  of  etymol- 
ogy reveals  many  similar  mistakes.  Nothing  can  be  affirmed  with 
certainty  about  the  etymology  of  a  word  until  it  has  been  carefully 
studied  by  the  light  of  established  phonetic  laws.  Mere  external 
resemblances  are  entirely  misleading.  Of  the  above  words  it  may 
be  well  to  trace  briefly  a  few  through  some  of  the  changes  through 
which  they  have  passed.  The  original  of  Kwbis  is  cucurbita,  the 
French  forms  of  it  being  coourde,  gohourde  and  others  with  initial  c 
and  g.  In  the  early  English  it  is  likewise  spelled  several  different 
ways  but  they  all  have  the  initial  g  showing  that  in  the  dialect  which 
was  its  prototype  this  letter  prevailed.  Whether  the  Germans  them- 
selves shortened  the  Latin  form  or  received  it  after  it  had  already 


A  History  of  the  German  Language  187 

been  so  changed  is  not  yet  established.  Knrois  and  '  gourd '  are  not, 
however,  exactly  equivalent  in  meaning.  The  Latin  marmor,  which 
is  also  the  German  form  though  the  gender  is  different,  appears  in 
the  Romance  languages  as  rnarme,  marmo,  marmore,  marmel, 
marbre,  etc.,  and  in  English  as  'marbre,'  'marbel,'  marble,' usage 
finally  settling  upon  the  last  as  the  normal  form.  Mandel  and  al- 
mond were  originally  the  same  word.  Its  earliest  Latin  prototype  is 
amendela.  In  the  Romance  tongues  it  appears  as  almendela,  ale- 
mandle  and  alemandre.  The  O.  H.  G.  form  is  mandala,  correspond- 
ing to  the  Italian  mandala,  but  other  languages,  among  them  the 
English,  have  retained  the  initial  syllable.  The  interchangeable  1 
and  r  in  the  final  syllable  is  the  same  phenomenon  that  we  see  in  the 
final  syllable  of  marble. 

The  higher  civilization  of  the  Romans  made  its  impress 
upon  the  German  language  in  three  different  directions : 
in  architecture,  in  viticulture  and  horticulture,  and  in  the 
culinary  art.  Under  the  first  head  belong  such  words  as 
Kalk,  Pflaster  (Lat.  plastrum,  Eng.  plaster,  later,  a  paved 
way),  Strasze  (Lat.  strata,  Eng.  street),  Platz  (platea), 
Mauer  (murus),  Pfosten  (postern),  Pforte  (porta),  Kerker 
(career,  retained  in  the  Eng.  incarcerate),  Keller  (cel- 
larium),  Turin  (turrem),  Pfalz  (palatium),  tiinchen  (related 
to  tunica)  Ziegel  (tigillum),  Schindel  (scandula  and  scin- 
dula).  Under  the  second  head  we  have  to  place  Wein 
(vinum),  Most  (mustum),  Winzer  (vinitorem),  keltern  (cal- 
citrare) , /n?/>/<?«  (propago),  imp  fen  2&&pelzen.  To  cookery 
and  the  art  of  preparing  food  in  general  belong  Kochen 
(coquere),  Speise  (spesa  and  expensa),  Butter  (butyrutn), 
the  pure  German  name  of  which  is  Schmer  or  Anke,  Essig 
(acetum),  Kdse  (caseus),  Oel  (oleum),  PJeffer  (piperem), 
Semmel  (semola)  and  Sen/  (sinapem).  Weiher  comes  from 
the  Latin  vivarium,  a  fish-pond.  The  names  of  many 
utensils  are  likewise  derived  from  the  Latin,  among  which 
are  Anker  (ancoria)  and  Kette  (catena),  Kopf  (cuppa).  (See 
ante  p.).  Schussel  (scutula),  Kiste  (cista)  and  Sack  (saccus), 
Tisch  (table)  the  English  'dish'  is  etymologically  related  to 
the  Latin  discus;  the  pure  German  word  which  designates 
this  article  of  furniture  being  biut.  The  borrowed  names 


for  objects  of  personal  adornment  are  noticeably  few ; 
among  them  are  Purpur,  Krone  (corona)  and  Spiegel  (spec- 
ulum). The  word  Kaiser  (Caesar)  is  the  only  word  belong- 
ing to  the  sphere  of  political  life.  As  would  be  inferred, 
the  number  of  loan-words  relating  to  fighting  is  small,  the 
Germans  being  in  early  times  much  given  to  war.  Almost 
the  only  ones  are  Kampf  (campum,  the  place  of  muster  or 
combat)  and  Pfeil  (pilum).  On  the  other  hand  the  words 
relating  to  peaceful  occupations  borrowed  by  the  Germans 
from  the  Romans  are  tolerably  numerous ;  among  them 
are  Markt  (mercatus),  Miinze  (moneta),  Pfund  (pondo), 
Zins  (census)  and  Zoll  (telonium).  Some  of  these  words 
the  Romans  in  their  turn  had  borrowed  from  the  Greeks. 

Writing,  as  a  practical  art,  came  to  the  Germans  through 
the  Romans,  and  the  chief  word  (schreiben]  is  a  modified 
form  of  the  Latin  scribere.  The  pure  German  word  writan 
is  preserved  in  the  English  '  write. '  Brief  ( an  epistle ) 
is  from  brevis  libellus,  '  a  little  book,'  and  is  preserved  in 
our  law-term  'brief.'  Siegel,  a  seal,  is  from  the  Latin 
sigillum.  It  may  be  inferred  from  the  nature  of  the  case 
that  the  arts  and  sciences  of  the  Romans  would  not,  during 
the  earlier  period  of  their  contact  with  the  Germans, 
make  much  impression  on  them.  They  were  regarded  as 
encouraging  effeminacy.  A  few  terms  relating  to  the 
healing  art  are  borrowed,  such  as  Arzt  (archiator),  Bilchse 
(pyxem)  and  Pftaster  (plastrum).  The  meaning  of  the 
last  named  word  as  here  given  is  the  earliest,  while  that 
above  noted  is  a  subsequent  development ;  their  relation 
to  each  other  is,  however,  plainly  evident. 

A  mightier  power  than  that  wielded  by  the  Roman 
empire  was  necessary  to  make  a  permanent  impression  on 
the  intellectual  and  spiritual  life  of  the  Germans.  This 
was  found  in  Christianity.  The  new  faith  came  to  them 
from  three  different  directions :  on  their  east  it  was 
preached  by  the  Greeks ;  Irish  and  Roman  apostles 
brought  the  Gospel  to  the  western  and  interior  tribes. 


A  History  of  the  German  Language  189 

But  Irish  Christianity  seems  to  have  made  no  impression 
upon  the  German  language,  owing,  perhaps,  to  the  fact 
that  the  Latin  had  so  thoroughly  permeated  this  form  of 
it  as  to  leave  but  faint  traces  of  the  native  language  upon 
it  when  it  was  brought  by  Irish  missionaries  into  Germany. 
Of  the  German  tribes,  the  Goths  were  the  only  ones  who 
had  much  intercourse  with  the  Greek  empire,  or  more 
definitely,  with  its  capital,  Constantinople,  and  they  dis- 
appear early  from  history,  having  been  in  part  extermin- 
ated, and  in  part  merged  with  other  tribes.  Nevertheless, 
it  was  through  them  that  one  of  the  most  important 
ecclesiastical  terms  was  introduced  into  the  German,  and 
indeed  into  all  the  languages  belonging  to  the  Germanic 
stock;  this  is  the  word  Kirche,  the  Scotch  'kirk,'  Ice- 
landic kirkja^  English  '  church.'  Pfaffe  (TOT™?),  Pfingsten 
(TrevTe/coo-Tiy),  and  Teufel  (Sia/3oAos)  also  came  in  by  way 
of  the  Gothic,  but  it  is  probable  that  Papst,  ( Pope,  Latin 
papa)  was  not  introduced  till  a  later  period.  In  fact, 
with  the  exception  of  these  and  possibly  a  few  other  words, 
all  the  ecclesiastical  terms  in  the  German  come  from  the 
Latin  directly,  though  the  originals  are  generally  Greek. 
In  the  nature  of  the  case,  the  influence  of  the  Roman 
heirarchy  was  powerful,  a  condition  of  things  that  be- 
comes more  plainly  evident  as  we  come  into  the  historical 
period  of  the  German  language  —  or,  more  accurately,  to 
the  O.  H.  G.  Most  of  the  names  used  to  designate 
buildings  and  utensils  for  religious  worship  are  directly 
from  the  Latin.  To  this  class  of  words  belong  Klause 
(clausa,  Eng.  close,  an  enclosed  space),  Kloster  (cloister), 
Miinster  (minster,  west-minster),  related  to  the  Latin 
4  monasterium  '  and  the  English  '  monastery,'  Schule 
(schola),  Altar,  Kanzel  (chancel),  Kreuze  (cruc-em),  Oblate 
(oblata)  and  Orgel;  likewise  the  names  of  ecclesiastical 
officers  and  offices,  such  as  Abt  (abbot),  Kilster  (custor, 
custorius),  Messner  (mansionarius),  M'onch  (monachus), 
Nonne,  Pries ter  (presbyter,  prester),  Probst  ( Praepositus ) 


190  A  History  of  the  German  Language 

and  Siegrist  (sacristanus).  The  same  may  be  said  of 
ecclesiastical  ceremonies  and  customs,  among  which  are 
Ferien  (feriae),  Mette  (matutina),  Vesper,  Messe  ( missa), 
Segen  (signum),  almosen  (Greek  eAe^/xoo-w?/),  and  Spende 
(from  Latin  spendere,  expendere).  Of  like  origin  are 
opfern  and  predigen  ( Latin  ofFere  and  praedicare),  Engel, 
Marter,  Pein  (poena),  Plage  and  verdammen.  Many  of 
these  words  do  not  occur  in  classical  Latin,  and  have  the 
exact  signification  in  German  that  they  have  in  the  Latin 
of  the  same  period.  Many  of  them,  too,  are  popular  in 
origin  and  meaning  and  came  into  the  German  with  the 
introduction  of  Christianity ;  but  besides  these  a  large 
number  were  brought  in  through  literary  channels  and  are 
found  only  in  translations  from  the  Latin. 

In  the  M.  H.  G.  period  we  are  face  to  face  with  entirely 
new  linguistic  materials.  The  crusades  drew  the  Germans 
out  of  their  isolation  into  the  current  of  European  life. 
Most  important  of  all,  these  expeditions  brought  them  into 
communication  with  their  Western  neighbors,  whose 
higher  civilization,  the  result  of  a  longer  and  more  direct 
subjection  to  the  power  of  the  Roman  empire,  made  a  deep 
and  lasting  impression  on  them.  The  French  language 
and  French  literature  became  the  chief  intellectual  food  of 
the  higher  classes.  M.  H.  G.  lyric  poetry  received  a  new 
and  strong  impulse  from  the  French  and  was  for  a  long 
time  patterned  after  French  models.  Nearly  all  the  epic 
court-poetry  of  this  period  consists  of  more  or  less  free 
translations  from  the  works  of  French  authors.  Godfrey 
of  Strasburg  and  others  of  his  kind  go  so  far  in  the  spirit 
of  imitation  as  to  insert  entire  verses  from  French  origi- 
nals into  their  poems.  Toward  the  latter  part  of  the 
twelfth  century  a  broad  stream  of  French  words  begins  to 
flow  in  upon  the  German  language.  The  technical  terms 
relating  to  the  tournament  and  the  chase,  to  play  and 
dance,  to  music  and  poetry  are  borrowed  from  the  West. 
A  large  number  of  articles  of  luxury  was  introduced  from 


A  History  of  the  German  Language  191 

the  same  country  into  Germany  and  with  them  their  desig- 
nations. The  same  is  true  of  words  relating  to  the  cere- 
monial of  court-life  and  to  courtly  manners.  Many  of 
these  were  but  short-lived  and  disappeared  with  the  death 
of  chivalry.  A  like  fate  befell  those  that  passed  into  the 
English  and  other  European  languages.  Some  however 
have  continued  to  the  present  day  and  are  become  an  in- 
tegral part  of  many  European  tongues.  Among  these  are 
Abenteuer  (adventure),  Banner,  blond,  fehlen  (Fr.  faillir ; 
Eng.  fail).  Fei,fein,  Komtur,  Palast,  Plan,  Preis,  turnieren. 
That  French  influence  penetrated  to  the  very  blood  and 
life  of  the  German  is  evident  from  the  fact  that  not  a  few 
words  of  pure  stock  were  modified  after  the  manner  of 
French  derivatives.  Words  like  vilanie,  partie  were  taken 
as  a  pattern  for  M.  H.  G.  jegene,  rouberie,vischerie,Q{ 
which  the  N.  H.  G.  equivalents  oxz.  J tiger  ei,  Rtiuberei and 
Ftscherei.  The  ending  -leren  in  words  like  halbieren, 
marschieren,  stolzieren  is  derived  from  the  French  infini- 
tives in  -ter,  which  in  the  M.  H.  G.  was  pronounced  with 
the  accent  on  the  i;  and  finally  -lei'm  mancherlei,  vielerlei, 
einerlei  and  their  like  is  the  French  word  lot  which  in  this 
earlier  time  was  pronounced  lei,  and  signified  also  mode 
or  manner.  The  influence  of  "the  Latin  continues  along- 
side the  French  throughout  the  M.  H.  G.  period,  without 
however  equalling  in  force  that  of  the  French.  The 
nearer  we  approach  the  Renaissance  and  the  age  of 
Humanism  the  more  does  the  Latin  come  into  prominence 
again.  Beginning  with  the  second  half  of  the  fifteenth 
century  a  great  deal  of  attention  is  given  to  translating 
from  the  Latin,  and  to  some  extent  from  other  languages. 
In  the  sixteenth  century  scholars  speak  the  language  of 
ancient  Rome  in  preference  to  their  own,  a  statement  that 
is  true  not  only  of  the  Germans,  but  to  a  greater  or  less 
extent  of  all  Europe.  The  mother-tongue  has  become  an 
object  of  contempt  to  such  an  extent  that  the  head  of  the 
Holy  Roman  Empire  was  willing  to  speak  German  to  his 


192  A  History  of  the  German  Language 

horse  only.  The  force  of  Humanism  is  not  yet  wholly 
spent  and  scholars,  especially  philologists,  are  continually 
introducing  into  their  native  language  words  taken  from 
the  Latin.  The  Greek  has  likewise  been  brought  into 
pretty  intimate  relation  with  the  German. 

In  the  seventeenth  and  in  the  eighteenth  century  the 
Latin  gradually  loses  its  prestige  as  the  language  of  cul- 
tivated society — Professor  Thomasius  began  to  deliver  lec- 
tures in  German  at  Leipzig  in  1688  which  were  the  first 
in  this  language  given  at  a  German  university — and  its 
place  is  in  a  measure  taken  by  the  French.  This  was  in 
part  owing  to  the  spirit  of  Humanism  the  prevalence  of 
which  had  accustomed  the  Germans  to  look  upon  their 
own  language  with  contempt.  To  French  influence  upon 
the  German  now  beginning  to  revive  that  of  the  Italian  is 
also  joined ;  it  furnishing  a  number  of  terms  relating  to 
music  and  commerce.  The  words  coming  from  this  source 
are  however  comparatively  few  and  the  influence  of  the 
Italian  is  much  less  potent  than  that  of  the  French. 
Finally,  there  has  been  in  progress  during  the  present 
century  a  considerable  influx  of  words  from  the  English, 
chiefly  such  as  relate  to  politics,  to  social  life  generally, 
and  especially  to  field-sports.  The  Germans  have  also 
borrowed  a  small  number  of  words  from  their  eastern 
neighbors,  the  Slavs,  among  which  are  Dolch  (dagger), 
Droschke  (cab),  Hallunke  (scoundrel),  Knute  (knout), 
Kutsche  (coach,  a  word  that  probably  has  a  singular  his- 
tory), Peitsche  (whip),  etc.  There  are  likewise  a  few 
words  in  the  Middle  and  Low  German  dialects  that  are 
traceable  to  the  same  source.  Besides  these,  there  are 
still  a  few  others  borrowed  from  the  Dutch,  Danish  and 
Swedish.  The  Thirty  Years  War  brought  many  Swedish 
soldiers  and  camp-followers  into  Germany  of  whom  a  con- 
siderable number  did  not  return  at  its  close,  but  settled  in 
different  parts  of  the  country.  Most  of  the  Swedish  words 
were  probably  introduced  in  this  way  and  at  this  time. 


A  History  of  the  German  Language  193 

All  the  influences  exerted  upon  the  language  of  the 
German  nation  as  above  described  were  external;  in 
marked  contrast  thereto  has  been  that  of  a  single  people 
dwelling  in  their  midst,  the  Jews.  The  Romance  nations, 
the  English,  the  Greeks,  the  Slavs  have  always  been  and 
still  are  foreigners,  from  the  standpoint  of  the  German  ; 
their  influence  was  extraneous  and  readily  discernible. 
The  case  is  different  with  the  people  who  dwell  in  all 
parts  of  the  land  and  who  'can  not  properly  be  called 
foreigners.  Not  many  are  the  words  which  the  Jews  have 
unintentionally  added  to  the  German  vocabulary,  but  a 
few  of  them  have  become  an  integral  part  of  it.  To  this 
source  we  may  trace  Gauner  (a  cheat,  trickster),  Kummel- 
bldttchen  (three-card  monte),  Schdcher,  schdchten,  and 
others.  But  in  the  dialects  the  Jewish  contingent  is  much 
larger.  We  find  acheln  for  essen;  beduch  for  niederge- 
drilckt;  ganfen  for  stehlen ;  kapores  iorcaput;  koscher  for 
recht;  Makkes  for  Schldge;  Moos  for  Geld;  and  many  more. 

The  above  enumeration  embraces  all  the  nations  who 
have  directly  contributed  to  increase  the  German  vocabu- 
lary from  their  own ;  but  the  number  of  languages  repre- 
sented in  the  German  is  much  greater,  because  many  have 
not  only  given  their  own  linguistic  material,  but  also  a 
portion  of  that  which  they  themselves  had  borrowed  from 
foreign  sources.  A  considerable  list  of  Arabic  words  came 
into  the  German  through  the  medium  of  the  Romance 
languages,  as  for  example  Alchymte,  Almanack,  Algebra, 
Alcohol,  Admiral,  Diwan,  all  of  which  belong  likewise  to 
the  English  language  and  have  in  it  substantially  the  same 
form  they  have  in  German. 

To  this  list  is  also  to  be  added  the  names  of  new  plants 
and  new  fabrics  brought  into  Germany  from  all  parts  of 
the  earth,  chiefly  through  the  medium  of  commerce.  Be- 
side those  contributions  made  directly  by  foreign  lan- 
guages, others  were  made  indirectly,  that  is,  through  inter- 
mediary languages,  as  when  Greek  words  which  had  first 


194  A  History  of  the  German  Language 

been  naturalized  in  the  Latin  were  thence  transferred  into 
the  German,  or  Romance  words  introduced  by  way  of  the 
English. 

An  examination  of  the  history  of  quite  a  number  of 
German  words  reveals  the  curious  fact  that  they  were  at 
one  period  borrowed  from  the  Germans  by  the  Romance 
nations  and  subsequently  reclaimed  and  reintroduced  into 
the  language  to  which  they  had  originally  belonged. 

It  thus  happens  that  the  German  now  has  in  a  few 
words  two  different  forms,  one  the  original  word,  the  other 
as  it  appears  after  undergoing  the  phonetic  changes  inci- 
dent to  its  pilgrimage  in  foreign  lands.  As  might  be  ex- 
pected these  last  are  greatly  changed  by  their  sojourn 
abroad,  invariably  as  to  form  and  in  some  cases  in  both 
form  and  meaning.  For  example,  Balkon  (balcony),  and 
Balken  were  originally  the  same  word;  so  were  Fauteuil 
a.n.&Feldsfuhl,  formed  through  a  popular  misconception  of 
derivation  from  Faltstuhl.  Gage  and  Wette,  Garde  and 
Warte,  Ltste  and  Leiste,  Rang  and  Ring  are  the  same 
words.  Biwak  (bivouac)  is  derived  from  the  old  German 
biwaht  (by-watch);  eqmpieren  is  related  to  schtff,  this  verb 
like  the  English  *  equip '  meaning  originally  '  to  provide  a 
ship  with  necessary  articles.'  Garniren  is  connected  with 
warnen  of  which  the  primitive  meaning  is  to  '  prepare '  or 
'  equip,'  and  Loge  (lodge)  with  Laube.  Foreign  influence 
is  much  more  subtile  and  difficult  to  discover  in  cases 
where  the  genius  of  a  foreign  language  has  made  its  im- 
press on  words  that  have  remained  purely  German  in 
form.  At  different  periods  in  the  history  of  the  High 
German,  words  were  formed,  partly  with  the  object  of  at- 
taining greater  definiteness  of  meaning,  and  partly,  in  re- 
cent times  at  least,  with  the  conscious  purpose  of  opposing 
foreign  influence  and  of  supplying  the  place  of  foreign 
with  native  German  words  meaning  etymologically  the 
same  thing.  In  some  instances  the  new  word  is  an  accu- 
rate translation  of  the  foreign  word  it  is  intended  to  sup- 


A  History  of  the  German  Language  195 

plant ;  in  others  it  is  designed  to  give  only  the  spirit  of 
the  foreign  word.  In  the  O.  H.  G.  period  a  compound 
gomaheit  was  coined  after  the  pattern  of  the  Latin  human- 
itas  (see  Brdutigam  ante);  similarly  misericors  was  ren- 
dered by  armherzi,  a  term  that  is  connected  with  barm- 
herzig  although  the  b  is  not  yet  fully  accounted  for. 
Missa  (mass)  that  which  is  sent,  was  translated  santa,  and 
propheta,forasago;  apostolus  called  into  existence  zwelf- 
bota,  one  of  the  twelve  messengers,  while  bibliotheca  be- 
came buohfasz,  andjungzro  is  probably  a  free  rendering 
of  disctpulus.  The  O.  H.  G.  translators  used  wahrlich  and 
gewisz  for  the  Latin  particles  autem,  ergo,  igttur,  itaque, 
pro  fee  to  and  vero,  a  use  of  these  words  which,  however, 
did  not  become  popular.  Again,  the  Latin  words  eman- 
atio,  objectum,  subjecium  and  their  like  were  rendered  iiz- 
ftu2,gegenwttrfor  widerwurf "and  under  stoz.  More  recent- 
ly alumnus  became  Pfleghng ;  Volkherrschaft  and  Frei- 
staat  are  pure  German  for  Demokratie  and  Republik. 
Telegram  becomes  Drahtbericht,  reconnaissant,  erkennt'.ich, 
Karrikatur,  Zerrbild,  and  incident^  Zwischenfall.  On  the 
other  hand  many  German  words,  while  not  newly  coined, 
have  assumed  new  meanings  under  foreign  influence,  or 
even  lost  their  original  signification  entirely.  It  is  prob- 
able that  Heide,  derived  from  Heide,  a  heath,  used  to 
designate  a  person  who  lives  in  the  country,  gets  its  pre- 
sent meaning  under  the  influence  of  the  Latin  paganus ; 
in  like  manner  taufen  may  have  meant  untertauchen,  and 
Jiinger,  a  younger  person,  then  a  disciple,  a  follower.  In 
the  sixteenth  century  the  word  burger  Itch  has  the  meaning 
of  hoflich,  anstandtg,  and  there  is  little  doubt  that  this 
meaning  had  originally  some  relation  to  '  civiliter '  or  '  civ- 
ilement.'  Zerstreut  got  its  present  signification  (distracted) 
in  the  time  of  Lessing,  without  doubt  as  an  equivalent  of 
distrait;  einem  den  Hof  machen  is  a  literal  translation  of 
faire  la  cour ;  antworten  sometimes  used  by  scholars  in  the 
sense  of  entsprechen,  shows  the  influence  of  the  Latin 


196  A  History  of  the  German  Language 

respondere.  The  English  word  '  answer '  is  often  similarly 
used.  In  cases  where  a  foreign  language  becomes  the 
model  for  the  structure  of  the  German  sentence  it  is  gen- 
erally the  Latin,  but  sometimes  the  French.  The  Accus- 
ative with  the  Infinitive  is  a  construction  that  is  often  im- 
itated, occurring  to  some  extent  in  the  O.  H.  G.  transla- 
tions, rarely  in  the  M.  H.  G.  period,  but  very  frequently 
both  in  original  writings  and  translations,  since  the  second 
half  of  the  fifteenth  century.  For  example  in  Theuer- 
dank — a  historical  allegory  in  verse  written  during  the 
fore-part  of  the  sixteenth  century — we  find,  "  nym  zu  dir 
den  Gesellen  dein,  den  du  weist  verschwiegen  zu  sein,"  and 
"der  Held  antwortt,  ich  red  on  spot,  mich  gewesen  sein  in 
grosser  Not"  This  form  of  expression  is  found  far  along 
in  the  eighteenth  century.  It  is  met  with  occasionally 
even  in  Lessing,  as  when  he  says,  "die  Theater  stiicke,  die 
er  so  vollkommen  nach  dem  Gcschmacke  seines  Parterres  zu 
sein  urteilte"  literally,  '  the  dramas  which  he  so  thoroughly 
believed  to  be '  etc.  In  the  German  of  to-day  this  con- 
struction has  entirely  disappeared.  Ich  sehe  ihn  kommen, 
was  originally  perfectly  correct.  But  there  is  faintly  visi- 
ble the  desire  to  represent  literally  a  foreign  construction 
in  such  expressions  as,  "  dein  Bruder,  von  dem  ich  urteile, 
dasz  er  sehr  reich  ist."  A  very  convenient  construction  is 
the  so-called  Ablative  Absolute.  The  German  originally 
had  something  similar  but  lost  it  early,  and  for  this  reason 
we  find  throughout  the  entire  H.  G.  period  an  effort  to  re- 
store it.  The  O.  H.  G.  translators  often  make  use  of  it.  In 
the  N.  H.  G.  period  the  Latin  prototype  is  reinforced  by  the 
example  of  the  French.  The  language  shows  an  evident 
effort  in  two  directions  to  attain  this  exotic  form  of  expres- 
sion. One  is  to  employ  a  sort  of  Accusative  Absolute,  as 
when  Schiller  says,  "dieses  Geschdft  berichtigt,  eilen  alle 
Stadthalter  nach  ihren  Provinzen"  and  Dahlmann,  "das 
geschehen,  hdnge  die  Entscheidung  von  dem  Konige  ah." 
The  other  is  the  use  of  the  preposition  nach,  which  how- 


197 

ever  generally  produces  a  very  disagreeable  stylistic  ef- 
fect, as  when  Goethe  says,  "nach  aufgehobenem  Klosterf1 
and  Schiller,  "nach  genommenem  Abschiede  von  seinem 
Freunde"  or  Grimm,  "nach  dem  abgeschilttelten  Joch  der 
Romer"  All  these  constructions  ought  to  be  avoided. 
Two  other  vicious  collocations  of  words  found  in  modern 
German  are  to  be  traced  to  the  Latin  use  of  the  relative 
pronoun :  the  first  is  the  use  of  a  relative  clause  introduced 
by  welcher  followed  by  a  substantive,  as  "auf  die  bayrischen 
Lande  richtete  er  sein  Hauptaugenmerk,  welche  Lande  bisher 
vom  K'onige  nicht  gelitten  hatten"  ("Erant  omnino  itinera 
duo,  quibus  itineribus  domo  exire  possent." — Caesar). 
The  second  is  the  joining  of  a  relative  to  a  principal  clause 
when  the  former  does  not  limit  or  explain  the  latter,  but 
adds  a  new  thought,  as,  "der  Redner  schloss  mil  einem  Hock 
auf  seine  Majestdt,  welchem  der  Gesang  der  Nationalhymne 
folgte,  worauf  dann  eine  grosze  Anzahl  patriotische  Toaste  sich 
anschlasz." 

It  is  safe  to  say  that  the  influence  of  the  Latin  has 
been  in  general  detrimental  to  the  grammar  of  the  Ger- 
man. The  strong  tendency  of  the  N.  H.  G.  toward  the 
use  of  subordinate  clauses  and  toward  involved  construc- 
tions is  attributable  to  the  influence  of  the  Latin.  The 
German  of  diplomacy  and  the  German  of  scholars,  both  a 
highly  artificial  mode  of  speech — the  language  of  persons 
who  understood  Latin  better  than  their  mother  tongue — 
were  the  channels  through  which  the  various  un-German 
and  semi-German  constructions  found  their  way  into  the 
language  of  the  people.  Many  peculiarities  of  the  Latin 
have  at  different  times  been  imitated  by  German  writers 
which  did  not  however  take  deep  root.  So  late  as  the  be- 
ginning of  the  present  century  a  professor,  in  the  preface 
to  a  book  which  he  had  written  in  his  vernacular,  felt 
called  upon  to  apologize  to  his  readers  for  employing  a 
language  that  was  less  familiar  to  him  than  Latin.  It  is 
evident  that  under  a  system  of  education  that  aimed 


198  A  History  of  the  German  Language 

mainly  at  securing  proficiency  in  a  foreign  language,  a 
correct  and  elegant  use  of  the  native  tongue  was  almost 
impossible  even  for  those  who  made  this  an  object.  There 
are  a  goodly  number  of  minor  peculiarities  of  the  Latin 
which  were  at  different  times  imitated  by  German  writers 
without,  however,  taking  deep  and  permanent  root.  This 
statement  is  probably  more  applicable  to  the  last  century 
when  German  began  to  be  the  language  of  science,  than 
to  any  other  period.  It  is  not  difficult  to  understand  why 
the  influence  of  the  French  was  less  marked  than  that  of 
the  Latin;  its  genius  is  much  more  nearly  akin  to  Ger- 
man than  either  is  to  the  older  language.  The  French 
does  not  contain  much  that  the  German  could  appropriate 
and  be  manifestly  the  gainer.  It  is  to  the  influence  of 
this  language,  however,  that  it  owes  a  mode  of  expression 
with  sein,  as,  ' '  von  hier  aus  ist  es  dasz  man  den  weitestcn  Blick 
iiber  Paris  hat. "  It  is  uncertain  whether  in  imitation  of 
the  Latin  or  the  French  there  arose  the  mode  of  express- 
ing quality  with  sein  von,  as,  '"Friedrich  V.  war  von  einem 
freien  und  aufgewecktem  Geiste,  vieler  Herzensgiite,  einer  ko- 
niglichen  Freigebigkeit."  Similarly  we  say  in  English,  he 
was  a  man  of,  etc.  French  prototypes  may  often  be  rec- 
ognized in  the  German  of  newspapers,  but  not  much  of 
this  has  become  a  recognized  portion  of  the  language,  as 
Gefahr  laufen  (courir  risque),  von  langer  Hand  (de  longue 
main}.  In  southwestern  Germany  one  frequently  hears  es 
macht  schon  Wetter  (il  fait  beau  temps).  A  number  of  isolat- 
ed French  words  are  also  used  with  slight  modifications, 
such  as  Bude I  (bouteille),  Kurasche  (courage),  Schossee 
(chaussee),  blessiren  (blesser).  In  Austria  one  not  infre- 
quently notices  forms  of  speech  that  betray  the  proximity 
of  the  Slavic  languages. 

We  may  once  more,  in  passing,  call  attention  to  the 
fact  that  the  old  language  now  and  then  exercises  a  dis- 
turbing influence  on  that  of  to-day,  tho'  this  phenome- 
non is  found  chiefly  in  the  writings  of  leading  German- 


A  History  of  the  German  Language  199 

ists   among   whom   Jacob   Grimm  easily   holds  the  first 
place. 

These  various  points  of  contact  with  foreign  languages 
enumerated  above  have  been  instrumental  in  drawing 
upon  the  German  a  veritable  flood  of  foreign  elements. 
The  number  of  exotic  words  in  it  has  been  estimated  by 
some  at  seventy  thousand  and  by  others  much  higher,  or 
about  one-eighth  of  the  entire  vocabulary. 

This  is  the  statement  of  Professor  Behaghel.  It  does  not  seem  to 
be  in  accord  with  what  has  been  previously  said  regarding  the  com- 
parative purity  of  the  language.  The  question  is  one  upon  which  it 
is  not  easy  to  obtain  accurate  data.  According  to  the  estimate  here 
given  the  number  of  words  in  the  German  would  considerably  exceed 
half  a  million.  To  extend  the  list  to  such  an  enormous  length  it 
would  be  necessary  to  include  many  words  that  have  little  claim  to 
be  regarded  as  properly  a  part  of  the  German  vocabulary.  No  Eng- 
lish dictionary,  so  far  as  I  am  aware,  professes  to  embrace  so  many 
as  one-third  this  number  of  words,  yet  the  English  language  is  nearly 
or  quite  as  copious  as  the  German.  A  large  number  of  words  used 
by  German  writers  are  known  to  be  foreign  and  are  not  entitled  to  a 
place  in  a  German  dictionary.  Their  place  is  in  an  encyclopedia  or 
polyglot  lexicon. 

There  is  no  sphere  of  life  that  has  kept  itself  free  from 
them,  though  perhaps  the  higher  culinary  art,  medicine 
and  military  affairs  have  fared  the  worst.  All  social  classes 
and  conditions  have  done  their  part  in  bringing  about  this 
speech-mixture,  though  the  share  of  each  is  not  equal.  A 
slight  difference  is  noticeable  between  the  language  used 
by  men  and  that  used  by  women,  provided,  of  course,  that 
their  education  is  virtually  on  the  same  level.  The  em- 
ployment of  Greek  and  Latin  words  is  confined  chiefly  to 
the  male  sex  ;  while  women  have  greater  facility  in  the 
use  of  English  and  French  words  and  phrases.  The  dif- 
ferent classes  of  society  regard  the  French  with  diverse 
sentiments.  The  aristocracy  and  the  court-circles  inter- 
mingle their  German  with  a  variety  of  French  words 
which  an  educated  person  readily  recognizes  :  such  as  an- 
tichambre,  menagieren,  soignieren.  On  the  other  hand  there 


200  A  History  of  the  German  Language     . 

lives  in  the  speech  of  the  uneducated  and  partly  educated 
a  large  number  of  foreign  words  that  are  obnoxious  or  un- 
known to  the  cultivated  classes, — they  are  such  as  Budel 
and  Bi'idel;  Gilet,  caressieren,  Plaisir,  caput,  Kamin.  The 
first  of  these,  from  bouteille,  illustrates  a  mode  or  rather 
a  defect  of  pronunciation  peculiar  to  South  Germany, 
the  failure  to  distinguish  between  the  surd  mutes  p 
and  t  on  the  one  hand  and  the  sonant  b  and  d  on  the 
other.  So  just  as  'bouteille  '  becomes  Budel,  Pudel'is  like- 
wise pronounced  Budel.  On  the  whole  the  educated  mid- 
dle classes  speak  a  German  that  is  least  intermixed  with 
foreign  elements. 

This  remarkable  condition  of  affairs  is  not  hard  to  un- 
derstand when  we  take  into  account  the  causes  that  lead 
to  the  frequent  employment  of  foreign  words.  They  are 
in  part  the  same  that  have  been  laid  before  the  reader  in 
a  former  chapter  as  leading  to  the  coinage  of  new  words. 
It  is  well  known  that  language  is  constantly  calling  into 
existence  new  vocables,  so  to  speak,  because  those  in  use 
do  not,  for  various  reasons,  supply  all  the  needs  of  men. 
It  is  a  familiar  fact  that  the  new  objects,  new  discoveries 
and  inventions,  the  new  concepts  that  are  introduced 
from  foreign  lands  bring  with  them  new  names.  Even  in 
cases  where  objects  and  ideas  are  our  own  creations  we 
are  fond  of  using  foreign  designations  because  it  is  more 
easy  and  convenient  to  adopt  words  already  in  existence 
than  to  coin  new  ones.  Occasionally  we  employ  alongside 
of  each  other  a  native  and  a  foreign  word,  as  a  convenient 
variation  of  style.  Sometimes  foreign  words  are  called 
into  requisition  because  they  afford  an  easy  means  of  con- 
cealing a  poverty  of  ideas  and  obscurity  of  thought.  Per- 
haps the  hearer  is  good-natured  enough  to  believe  that  it 
is  his  own  ignorance  which  makes  the  words  of  the 
speaker  enigmatic  and  unintelligible  in  their  foreign  garb. 
Formally  at  least  foreign  words  admit  of  a  greater  variety 
in  their  use  than  native.  How  few  people  are  disagreeably 


A  History  of  the  German  Language  201 

affected  on  hearing  hybrid  compounds  of  Greek  and  Latin, 
or  the  senseless  mutilation  of  terms  belonging  to  a  lan- 
guage which  they  do  not  thoroughly  comprehend. 

Vanity  is  often  associated  with  mental  indolence.  Half 
educated  persons  like  to  get  credit  for  more  knowledge 
than  they  possess,  and  one  way  of  gaining  this  credit  is  by 
the  use  of  such  foreign  words  as  they  may  have  at  com- 
mand. Often  this  number  is  so  limited  and  their  use  so 
injudicious  as  to  miss  entirely  its  object  and  only  to 
awaken  the  feeling  of  the  ludicrous  in  the  mind  of  the 
hearer.  The  aristocrat  is  fond  of  showing  his  superiority 
to  the  common  herd  by  the  use  of  words  that  are  not  a 
part  of  every-day  speech.  It  is  evident  then  that  the 
strong  inclination  to  employ  uncommon  vocables  is  to  be 
found  in  an  unfortunate  but  very  general  and  wholly  in- 
eradicable trait  of  human  nature.  Nevertheless,  we  are  in 
duty  bound,  for  reasons  elsewhere  given,  not  to  yield  with- 
out a  struggle  to  this  prevalent  tendency.  The  frequent 
use  of  foreign  words  interferes  seriously  with  the  object 
for  which  speech  exists,  namely,  the  communication  of 
thought.  It  is  a  hindrance  to  the  easy  intercourse  be- 
tween the  different  classes  of  society  and  leads  to  misun- 
derstandings that  are  often  ludicrous  enough.  Educated 
persons  and  scholars  are  sometimes  at  a  loss,  when  brought 
face  to  face  with  an  exotic  word  and  are  compelled  to  re- 
sort to  the  dictionary  in  the  hope  that  it  may  not,  as  fre- 
quently happens,  leave  them  no  wiser  than  they  were  be- 
fore. But  even  after  foreign  words  have  become  fully 
naturalized  among  the  educated  they  will  not,  in  the  main, 
be  so  thoroughly  comprehended  and  be  used  with  the  same 
definiteness  as  those  of  pure  native  stock — in  fact  they  can 
hardly  attain  the  same  definiteness  of  signification.  They 
lack  the  firm  hold  upon  the  language  that  grows  out  of 
their  etymological  connection  with  other  and  well  known 
words  of  whose  meaning  there  can  not  easily  be  a  doubt. 
This  absence  of  supports  for  the  memory  is  the  more  dis- 
14 


202  A  History  of  the  German  Language 

tinctly  felt  for  the  reason  that  in  the  living  vernacular, 
words  of  foreign  origin  are  more  liable  to  mutilation  than 
native  ones,  quite  apart  from  the  unavoidable  uncertainty 
of  their  orthography.  The  educated  man  must  always  be 
more  or  less  in  doubt  about  the  pronunciation  of  foreign 
words.  Shall  the  German  accent  the  penult  or  the  ante- 
penult in  Barometer,  and  shall  he  give  the  second  /in  Arista- 
kratie  its  German  or  French  sound  ?  The  laws  of  French 
accent  on  the  one  hand  and  of  English  and  German  on 
the  other  tend  in  opposite  directions ;  and  until  a  word 
transplanted  from  one  language  into  the  other  has  secured 
full  naturalization  its  accentuation  is  uncertain.  Is  Cceli- 
bat  masculine  or  neuter?  Is  the  plural  of  Thema,  Themas, 
Themen,  Themata,  or  Thematen?  Exactly  the  same  thing 
is  true  of  the  English,  and  it  can  not  be  said  that  one  is 
sure  what  is  the  plural  of  '  index,'  or  '  memorandum,'  or 
'  cherub,'  or  '  bandit.'  Our  best  lexicographers  disagree 
about  the  plurals  and  the  pronunciation  of  a  long  list  of 
words ;  and  they  are  probably  all  such  as  are  not  yet  fully 
naturalized.  In  many  cases,  the  coiners  of  new  words, 
generally  compounds,  out  of  materials  taken  from  foreign 
languages,  do  not  themselves  venture  to  indicate  their 
pronunciation.  It  sometimes  happens  that  words  incor- 
porated from  one  language  into  another  receive  a  modifi- 
cation of  meaning  that  makes  them  unintelligible  to  the 
people  from  whom  they  were  originally  taken.  This  may 
lead  to  vexatious  misunderstandings.  The  German  term 
Eisenbahncoupe'  is  equivalent  to  the  French  compartiment. 
Coupe'  in  this  sense  is  thus  bad  German  and  worse  French. 
Gourmet  and  Gourmand  are  often  confounded  by  both  Eng- 
lish and  Germans.  The  former  means,  a  man  of  keen  pal- 
ate ;  the  latter,  a  great  eater.  It  will  be  readily  understood 
that  the  difficulty  of  getting  at  the  meaning  of  words  is 
not  equally  great  in  every  instance.  Many  loan-words 
have  become  so  completely  an  integral  part  of  the  Ger- 
man that  the  casual  observer  does  not  distinguish  them 


203 

from  home-grown  product.  With  most  words  this  is, 
however,  not  the  case :  they  contain  sounds  that  it  is  diffi- 
cult or  impossible  for  German  vocal  organs  to  produce,  or 
their  accent  is  not  in  harmony  with  that  obtaining  in  the 
native  tongue.  The  French,  for  example,  uniformly  place 
the  accent  on  the  final  syllable,  except  in  the  case  of  the 
mute  e ;  the  Germans,  on  the  radical  part  of  the  word, 
which  is  usually  the  first  or  second  syllable  from  the  be- 
ginning. These  conflicting  tendencies  are  constantly 
cropping  out  in  the  use  of  French  words  by  English-speak- 
ing people.  It  may  be  observed  in  such  familiar  words  as 
debut,  depot,  ennui,  etc.  Even  when  the  accent  is  rightly 
placed  it  is  not  the  French  accent.  The  difficulties  in  the 
way  of  acquiring  the  correct  pronunciation  of  foreign 
words  are  so  great  as  to  be  well  nigh  insurmountable. 
There  is  evidently,  then,  a  sort  of  stylistic  antagonism  be- 
tween the  purely  native  and  the  loan-words  that  enter 
into  a  sentence.  On  aesthetic  grounds  such  a  mixture  is 
highly  objectionable.  There  is  perhaps  no  modern  lan- 
guage that  is  so  little  in  need  of  aid  from  external  sources 
as  the  German.  The  readiness  with  which  it  forms  com- 
pounds makes  it  an  easy  matter  to  express  in  this  lan- 
guage nearly  or  quite  every  possible  concept  of  the  human 
mind.  There  is  at  present  a  marked  tendency  among  the 
Germans  to  substitute  words  of  native  origin  for  those  of 
foreign  parentage  that  have  acquired  domicil  among  them. 
There  is  no  excuse  but  the  gratification  of  vanity  for  call- 
ing in  foreign  aid  to  assist  in  doing  that  which  can  in  most 
cases  be  done  just  as  well  out  of  native  resources.  Where  a 
language  is  largely  composite,  like  the  English,  the  case  is 
somewhat  different.  Writers  of  equal  ability  differ  consider- 
ably in  the  relative  proportion  of  pure  Saxon  words  and 
loan-words,  chiefly  Latin,  that  enter  into  their  working  vo- 
cabulary. A  good  rule  to  follow  is  never  to  use  a  word  of 
foreign  origin,  if  one  of  native  ancestry  equally  appropri- 
ate and  expressive  exists.  On  the  other  hand,  it  is  well  to 


204  A  History  of  the  German  Language 

avoid  carrying  purism  in  language  to  a  pedantic  and  ridic- 
ulous excess.  The  difficulty  of  keeping  the  German  free 
from  alien  elements  is  not  so  great  as  it  may  seem  at  first 
sight.  In  a  countless  number  of  instances  it  possesses 
good  native  words  alongside  of  those  of  foreign  origin  be- 
tween which  the  speaker  or  writer  has  the  privilege  of 
choosing.  When  there  is  no  existing  word  to  express  a 
new  concept  it  is  easy  to  coin  one.  Generally  speaking 
the  Germans  have  taken  rather  kindly  to  the  formation  of 
new  words.  Often  the  mere  translation  of  words  is  not 
sufficient  to  make  their  meaning  clear.  This  fact  is  illus- 
trated in  the  cases  where  the  same  words  have  been  in- 
troduced into  the  language  at  different  periods,  and  which 
now  have  divergent  meanings.  Theismus  literally  trans- 
lated would  be  rendered  by  the  same  word  as  Deismus,  yet 
they  do  not  mean  the  same  thing  any  more  than  do  the 
English  '  theism  '  and  'deism.'  Spital  and  Hdtel  are  both 
from  the  Latin  '  hospitale,'  yet  they  differ  widely  in  signi- 
fication. The  former  means  '  hospital '  and  the  significa- 
tions of  the  latter  are  not  very  different  in  French, 
German  and  English.  Many  similar  cases  might  be 
cited. 

In  other  ways  also  purism  may  fail  of  its  object  and  be- 
come ridiculous.  It  would  be  unwise,  to  say  nothing  of 
its  utter  impracticability,  to  attempt  to  banish  from  any 
language  all  those  words  that  careful  investigation  has 
shown  to  be  of  alien  origin,  as,  for  instance  those  that 
came  into  the  German  from  the  Latin,  during  the  earliest 
contact  of  these  languages  with  each  other.  Not  a  few 
words  of  recent  importation  have  become  indispensably 
German  and  may  therefore  be  justly  regarded  as  fully  nat- 
uralized. On  the  other  hand,  dogmatic  assertion  as  to  the 
permanence  of  words  is  equally  unwise,  for  some  fortunate 
stroke  of  genius  or  the  happy  inspiration  of  a  moment  may 
call  into  being  a  new  term  that  will  fitly  take  the  place  of 
an  old  one.  In  the  year  1815  a  newspaper  declared  that 


A  History  of  the  German  Language  205 

no  word  could  ever  take  the  place  of  Madame  and  Demoi- 
selle, and  every  suggestion  looking  to  such  a  consumma- 
tion would  be  dealing  with  the  impossible.  What  a  deter- 
mined purpose  may  yet  accomplish  is  best  judged  by  what 
has  already  been  done.  The  strife  that  has  been  carried 
on  since  the  beginning  of  the  N.  H.  G.  period,  by  patriotic 
Germans,  against  the  mania  for  foreign  words  has  not 
been  in  vain.  The  greatest  zeal  and  activity  in  this 
respect  was  shown  by  J.  H.  Campe.  He  was  the  subject 
of  frequent  attacks  and  not  a  little  ridicule,  and  in  truth 
was  not  free  from  fanaticism  ;  yet  on  the  whole  his  influ- 
ence was  salutary.  Campe  was  a  clergyman,  an  educator 
in  the  true  sense  of  the  term,  a  lexicographer  and  a  volu- 
minous writer  of  books  chiefly  for  youth  some  of  which 
are  still  in  demand.  He  died  in  1818  at  the  age  of  seventy- 
two.  It  can  be  shown  that  he  exerted  more  or  less  influ- 
ence on  Goethe,  Richter,  Schiller  and  others,  while  a  num- 
ber of  the  best  German  words  in  use  to-day  were  coined 
by  him  to  take  the  place  of  loan-words.  Among  these  are 
sick  eignen  for  qualificieren,  Kerbtier  for  Insekt,  Gefallsucht 
for  Koketterie,  Fallbeil  for  Guillotine,  Zetrbildior  Karrikatur. 
Subsequently  Robert  Schumann  showed  the  Germans 
that  the  musical  art  has  no  need  ot  Italian  words,  and  that 
German  terms  may  fitly  take  the  place  of  the  current  alle- 
gro, grazioso,  moderate,  poco  piil  mosso,  vivace,  etc.  In  our 
day  the  establishment  of  the  new  German  empire,  the  ex- 
traordinary growth  of  national  feeling  among  the  Germans, 
has  given  an  increased  impetus  to  the  movement  against 
the  introduction  and  use  of  foreign  words.  The  German 
penal  code,  the  postal  department,  the  official  report  of 
the  war  of  1870-71  by  the  department  of  military  affairs, 
and  certain  influential  newspapers,  notably  in  South  Ger- 
many the  Landeszeitung  of  Baden,  have  inspired  the  na- 
tion with  a  commendable  zeal  for  purity  of  speech,  and 
have  coined  apt,  pure  German  words  for  foreign  ones  in 
current  use. 


206  A  History  of  the  German  Language 

The  terminology  of  medicine  has  perhaps  been  least 
influenced  in  this  respect.  There  is  some  excuse  for  this. 
Not  unfrequently  the  physician  finds  it  advisable  to  dis- 
cuss with  a  brother  physician  the  condition  of  the  patient 
in  his  presence  in  a  language  that  he  does  not  understand. 
Systematic  botany  and  zoology  can  not  easily  dispense 
with  a  terminology  that  is  largely  of  foreign  origin,  not 
because  appropriate  German  terms  do  not  exist  but  for 
the  opposite  reason :  the  same  object  is  designated  by  a 
number  of  different  names,  each  peculiar  to  a  particular 
district,  but  not  understood  elsewhere.  Some  examples 
have  been  previously  given.  Many  of  the  so-called  scien- 
tific terms  are  the  common  property^of  science.  They  are 
in  large  part  formed  of  material  existing  in  the  ancient 
Greek  and  Latin,  and  can  not  be  said  to  belong  properly 
to  any  one  modern  tongue  rather  than  to  any  other. 

It  remains  for  us  to  consider  the  fate  of  loan-words  as 
individuals  both  directly  after  they  have  been  introduced 
and  when  they  have  become  in  a  measure  a  part  of  the 
German  vocabulary.  They  have,  in  the  course  of  time, 
fallen  into  two  general  classes.  Into  one  may  be  put  all 
those  that  have  assumed  a  German  garb  and  may  there- 
fore be  said  to  have  become  fully  Germanized ;  in  the 
other  belong  all  those  that  have  retained  very  nearly  their 
original  form.  In  effect,  however,  no  fixed  line  can  be 
drawn  between  the  two  classes  for  the  same  word  has  in 
some  instances  undergone  both  kinds  of  treatment.  The 
former  proceeding  is  more  common  in  the  earlier  history 
of  the  language,  and  the  latter,  in  its  subsequent  develop- 
ment. The  words  that  were  naturalized  in  the  O.  H.  G. 
period  were  so  manipulated  as  to  present  in  every  respect 
the  appearance  of  native  words.  It  is  now  difficult  to 
recognize  these  as  exotics,  and  it  would  be  neither  possi- 
ble nor  advisable  to  extradite  or  outlaw  them.  The  accre- 
tions that  took  place  during  the  M.  H.  G.  period  are  rarely 
much  changed  in  form  or  appearance  and  still  bear  evident 


A  History  of  the  German  Language  207 

traces  of  their  foreign  origin.  The  explanation  of  this 
phenomenon  is  not  to  be  found  in  the  fact  that  the  assimil- 
ating power  of  the  German  had  become  weaker,  but  rather 
in  the  circumstance  that  the  borrowing  in  one  case  was 
done  by  scholars  and  in  the  other  by  the  people.  In  the 
latter  we  have  an  example  of  the  popular  treatment  of 
foreign  words,  while  the  former  exhibits  the  method  of 
the  literary  class. 

When  the  literary  class  acquire  the  knowledge  of  a  for- 
eign word  they  learn  it  by  sight  rather  than  by  hearing. 
Met  with  again  and  again  as  a  part  of  the  sentence  its 
original  form  is  frequently  reimpressed  upon  the  mind  of 
the  reader.  On  the  other  hand  when  an  exotic  becomes  a 
part  of  the  living  and  spoken  language  of  a  people  they 
intuitively  shape  it  into  conformity  with  the  phonetic  laws 
of  their  own  tongue.  This  modification  takes  place  just 
as  readily  now  as  at  any  period  in  the  past.  These  state- 
ments are  not  only  true  of  the  relation  of  German  to  for- 
eign words,  but  the  facts  are  in  conformity  with  a  univer- 
sal law  of  speech.  The  Latin  furnished  a  large  number  of 
words  to  the  Romance  languages  that  appear  as  doublets : 
one  form  representing  the  original  word  as  modified  by 
the  natural  action  of  the  vocal  organs  of  the  unlettered 
populace ;  the  other,  the  form  given  to  it  by  the  literary 
class. 

The  most  striking  contrast  between  pure  German  words 
and  a  large  number  of  loan-words  from  the  Greek,  Latin 
and  French,  lies  in  the  accent.  The  German  generally 
places  the  chief  stress  on  the  first  syllable  of  a  word,  while 
the  Greek  and  Latin  have  no  such  rule  of  accentuation. 
In  French  the  accent  is  on  the  ultima  owing  to  the 
fact  that  when  Latin  words  became  fully  Gallicised  they 
lost  all  that  part  which  followed  the  accented  syllable. 

In  the  O.  H.  G.  age  the  native  accent  was  transferred  to 
the  foreign  loan-words,  and  the  result  was  that  such  words 
as  '  monasterium,'  '  mondta '  and  '  palatium  '  became  in 


208  A  History  of  the  German  Language 

German  Miinster,  Mi'mse  and  Pfalz.  The  English  accent 
corresponds  in  the  main  with  the  German ;  where  such  is 
not  the  case  it  is  usually  owing  to  the  disturbing  influence 
of  the  French,  from  which  however  the  language  is  grad- 
ually emancipating  itself.  Thus,  from  the  French  monas- 
tere,  monndie  and  palAce,  we  get  '  monastery,'  '  money ' 
and  '  palace,'  all  accented  on  the  first  syllable.  In  the  M. 
H.  G.  period  we  find  both  the  German  and  French  accent 
on  the  same  syllable.  The  French  la  baniere  appears  both 
as  bdnier  and  banter;  whence  we  get  the  N.  H.  G.  doublets 
Banner  and  Panzer.  At  the  present  day  the  foreign  accent 
is  generally  retained  on  loan-words  which  results  in  pro- 
ducing a  shifting  accent,  as,  Professor  and  Professoren, 
A' Has  and  Atl&nten.  It  needs  to  be  remarked,  however, 
that  many  words  did  not  come  into  the  German  directly 
from  the  language  of  which  they  originally  formed  a  part, 
but  through  the  medium  of  another  in  which  their  accent 
had  undergone  some  modification.  The  names  Menelaus. 
Themistokles  and  Oedipus  are  accented  according  to  the 
Latin  and  not  the  Greek  or  we  should  have  Menelaus, 
Themistokles  and  Oedipus.  In  such  terms  as  Katholik, 
Musik,  Protestdnt  the  accent  remained  where  it  is  in  the 
French.  In  some  cases  a  word  may  be  accented  either 
according  to  the  analogy  of  the  French  or  the  German 
and  we  may  pronounce  Phaenomen  or  Phaenomen,  Arith- 
metik  or  Artthmeiik,  Metaphy'sik  or  Metaphysik,  a  fact  to 
which,  as  far  as  it  bears  upon  English  pronunciation,  we 
have  already  called  attention.  The  Germans  say  Anti- 
pathie,  Politik,  Mathemathik,  but  in  the  derivative  adjec- 
tives the  accent  falls  on  the  penult  making  antipdthisch, 
Politisch,  mathemdthisch.  In  cases  of  double  accent  such  as 
we  find  on  Stdtue  and  Statue,  Physik  and  Phy'sik,  it  is 
doubtful  whether  the  accent  on  the  first  follows  the  anal- 
ogy of  the  Latin  or  the  German  as  they  here  coincide. 
Other  similar  examples  are  Kdrneval,  Liei'itenant,  O'cean, 
Schdrlatari.  In  such  words  as  Adjectiv,  Infinitiv,  Kaval- 


A  History  of  the  German  Language  209 

lerie  the  accent  is  sometimes  heard  on  the  first  and  some- 
times on  the  last  syllable.  The  same  can  be  said  of  the 
dissyllables  Bureau,  Diner,  Souper,  the  tendency  in  North 
Germany  being  to  accent  the  final  and  in  South  Germany 
the  radical  syllable.  In  Switzerland  one  may  even  hear 
Cousine,  Hotel,  Parterre.  It  may  be  stated  as  a  general 
truth  that  more  attention  is  paid  in  the  North  to  correct 
pronunciation  than  in  the  South.  For  this  reason,  the 
foreign,  which  is  the  correct,  pronunciation  of  these  and 
like  words,  is  retained  as  nearly  as  possible.  The  actual 
result  however  comes  far  short  of  what  is  aimed  at,  for  the 
heavy  stress  placed  on  the  final  syllable  of  French  words, 
by  the  North  Germans,  is  as  ijar  from  the  intonation  of  the 
native  French  as  the  misplaced  accent  of  the  South  Ger- 
mans. When  one  learns  a  foreign  language  from  the 
printed  page,  that  is  by  sight  rather  than  by  ear,  he  is 
likely  to  pronounce  a  letter  or  combination  of  letters  as 
they  are  pronounced  in  his  own  language.  Hence  the 
Germans  frequently  pronounce  Toast  as  a  dissyllable,  be- 
cause oa  does  not  occur  as  a  digraph  in  their  language, 
though  it  is  common  in  English.  Most  languages  have 
sounds  peculiar  to  themselves  which  can  only  be  learned 
by  long  practice  begun  when  the  vocal  organs  are  still  in 
a  plastic  condition.  It  is  a  rare  thing  for  an  adult  to  learn 
correctly  the  pronunciation  of  any  other  tongue  besides 
his  vernacular,  but  the  ability  to  hear  and  reproduce  for- 
eign sounds  accurately  differs  considerably  in  different  in- 
dividuals, and  is  not  wholly  a  matter  of  education  and 
training. 

NOTE.—  One  of  the  most  careful  observers  in  this  field  lays  down 
the  following  propositions : 

1.  "  Whenever  a  foreign  language  is  perfectly  acquired,  there  are 
peculiar  family  conditions.     The  person  has  either  married  a  per- 
son of  the  other  nation  or  is  of  mixed  blood. 

2.  When  a  foreign  language  has  been  acquired  (there  are  instances 
of  this)  in  quite  absolute  perfection,  there  is  almost  always  some  loss 


210  A  History  of  the  German  Language 

in  the  native  tongue.    Either  the  native  tongue  is  not  spoken  cor- 
rectly or  it  is  not  spoken  with  perfect  ease. 

3.  A  man  sometimes  speaks  two  languages  correctly — his  father's 
and  his  mother's,  or  his  own  and  his  wife's— but  never  three. 

4.  Children  can  speak  several  languages  exactly  like  natives,  but 
in  succession,  never  simultaneously.    They  forget  the  first  in  acquir- 
ing the  second,  and  so  on. 

5.  A  language  can  not  be  learned  by  an  adult  without  five  years' 
residence  in  the  country  where  it  is  spoken,  and  without  habits  of 
close  observation  a  residence  of  twenty  years  is  insufficient." — P.  G. 
Hamerton. 

The  effort  to  produce  the  sounds  of  a  foreign  language 
generally  results  in  giving  the  native  sound  that  ap- 
proaches most  closely  to  it — in  the  uneducated  this  is  al- 
ways the  case.  For  example  the  Latin  '  feria '  becomes 
vira  in  the  earlier  German,  in  the  later  Feier;  '  creta'  be- 
came crida  then  Kreide.  The  same  procedure  may  still 
be  observed.  The  mute  e  of  the  French  is  generally  rep- 
resented by  the  German  e,  in  spite  of  the  fact  that  the 
sounds  of  the  two  letters  differ  considerably.  The  French 
nasal  sound  is  often  represented  by  a  simple  n  or  m,  or  by 
ng,  as  in  Mansarde,  Rang,  Tambur.  This  is  true  both  of 
German  and  English.  Both  nations  have  great  difficulty 
in  producing  graphically  as  well  as  phonetically  the 
French  liquid  sounds.  In  German  we  generally  find  gn 
represented  by  nj  and  so  pronounced.  The  German  1 
often  stands  as  the  representative  of  the  French  liquid  1, 
so  that  in  South  Germany  botttezlle  is  pronounced  Budel  or 
JBudel  and  fauteuil  Fotohl.  Sometimes  Ich  performs  the 
same  office  in  North  Germany  and  we  get  Budelch  and 
Fotolch.  The  final  -il  in  detail,  email  is  pronounced  in 
South  Germany  so  as  to  rhyme  with  Heil  and  Teil. 

Notwithstanding  these  variations,  it  is  possible  in  most 
instances  to  discover  what  particular  sound  of  the  foreign 
tongue  is  represented  in  a  loan-word,  and  therefore,  to  de- 
termine at  what  stage  of  development,  speaking  broadly, 
the  foreign  word  was  taken  into  the  German.  By  a  com- 
parison of  sounds  it  is  usually  not  difficult  to  decide  at 


A  History  of  the  German  Language  211 

about  what   time   the  borrowing  must  have  been  done. 
The  Latin  c,  for  example,  before  e  and  i  was  pronounced 
like  k  until  about  the  seventh  century  of  our  era;  subse- 
quently it  gradually  took  the  sound  of  z  (ts).     Hence  we 
know  that  the  German  words  Keller  (cellarium),  Kerbel 
(cserefolium),  Kirsche  (cerasus),  Kiste  (cista)  are  loan-words 
of  earlier  date   than  Kreuz  (crucem)  and  Zms   (census). 
Such  words  as  Pamer  and  Rappier  must  have  come  into 
the  German  at  a  time  anterior  to  Bariere  and  Lisiere  be- 
cause the  French  pronunciation  -iere  was  preceded  by  -iere, 
i.  e.,  the  accent  shifted  one  syllable  nearer  to  the  end  of 
the  word.     Sometimes  we  may  draw  conclusions  as  to  the 
mode  of  inflection  in  a  foreign  language  from  the  form 
loan-words  have  taken  in  German.     These  words  shaped 
themselves  according  to  the  analogy  of  the  native  words 
which  they  most  nearly  resembled  and  with  especial  ref- 
erence to  the  current  inflectional  endings.    When  substan- 
tives, they  generally  took  the  gender  of  the  class  that  oc- 
casioned their  change  of  form.     In  this  way  the  Latin 
words  ending   in   -arium  were  classed  with  the  German 
words  ending  in  -art  and  incorrectly  became  masculines. 
Kellari  (O.  H.  G.  chellari)  is  the  oldest  known  form  of 
Keller  and  wiari  (vivarium)  of  weiher,  and  correspond  in 
form  and  gender  with  such  words  as  Icrari  (Lehrer),  scri- 
&zrz'(Schreiber),  etc.    The  French  words  le  groupe,  le  role, 
and  all  substantives  in  -age,  however,  became  feminine  in 
German  after  the  analogy  of  Bitte,  Gabe  and  their  con- 
geners.    It  is  therefore  ridiculous  pedantry  to  insist  on 
der  Rhone,  as  some  teachers  do,  simply  because  the  Latin 
Rhodanus  is  masculine.    But  not  merely  the  formal  anal- 
ogy between  loan  words  and  native  words  has  had  an  im- 
portant influence  upon  the  former:  the  relation  between 
the   concepts   has    likewise   been   a   determining   factor. 
Kadaver,  though  neuter  in  Latin  is  masculine  in  German 
because  Leichnam  is  of  this  gender.     Mauer  and  Nicmmer 
are  feminine  while  the  Latin  murus  and  numerus  are  mas- 


212  A  History  of  the  German  Language 

culine  because  Wand&&&  Zahtare  masculine.  Libell  takes 
the  gender  of  Buck,  Pferd  (late  Latin  paraveredus}  that  of 
Ross.  In  Vienna  Tramway  is  feminine  for  the  reason  that 
Pferdebahn  is.  In  a  number  of  cases,  however,  there  were 
no  words  in  the  German  that  corresponded  exactly  to 
the  loan-word.  This  led  to  an  uncertainty  in  the  gender 
and  it  is  not  easy  to  discover  any  definite  rule  of  procedure. 
In  fact  there  is  a  rather  long  list  of  words  that  have  dif- 
ferent genders  in  the  different  Germanic  dialects.  The 
French  noun,  in  spite  of  the  fact  that  it  is  generally  at- 
tended by  the  article,  has  not  always  decided  the  gender 
of  nouns  lent  to  its  eastern  neighbors.  During  the  M.  H. 
G.  period  the  masculine  is  represented  more  frequently 
than  in  later  times.  Compare,  for  example,  Harnisch 
(harnais),  Palast  (palace),  Preis  (prix),  etc.,  with  the  mod- 
ern Bankett,  Bataillon,  Banquett,  Dejeuner,  Filet  and  many 
others,  all  of  which  are  masculine  in  French  and  neuter  in 
German.  Some  difficulty  was  probably  experienced  by 
the  Germans,  who  were  accustomed  to  a  language  with 
three  genders,  in  grasping  the  genius  of  a  language  which 
like  the  French  has  but  two.  This  difficulty  would  be  the 
greater  when  both  languages  were  written  but  little  and 
their  contact  chiefly  oral.  In  later  times,  especially  among 
the  lettered  class,  the  reason  may  be  assumed  to  have 
played  a  part  denied  to  it  in  the  earlier  periods  when  the 
growth  of  languages  is  chiefly  instinctive.  Though  the 
originals  of  Bankett,  Bataillon,  Journal  and  Palais  are  mas- 
culine, they  designate  neuter  objects  and  would  naturally 
be  assigned  to  that  gender  if  the  judgment  had  any  part 
in  the  decision,  which  unfortunately  it  has  not  in  the  Ger- 
man nor  in  some  other  languages. 

A  number  of  words  are  of  two  genders.  Chor  is  both  mas- 
culine and  neuter,  as  are  likewise  Konsulat  and  Patriarchal, 
though  in  the  latter  cases  it  is  the  result  of  scholastic  ped- 
antry. The  German  language  in  its  instinctive  stage  made 
all  words  ending  in  -at  neuter,  according  to  the  analogy  of 


A  History  of  the  German  Language  213 

the  Latin  words  the  stems  of  which  ended  with  the  same 
letters.  As  soon  as  loan-words  became  thoroughly  nat- 
uralized in  the  German  they  were  subjected  to  the  same 
phonetic  laws  as  native  words.  They  underwent  the 
same  phonetic  variations,  and  by  a  careful  study  of  this 
fact  we  obtain  some  chronological  aid  in  determining  the 
date  of  incorporation.  The  Latin  l  parochus,'  '  planta,' 
'  porta '  appear  in  German  as  Pfarrer,  Pflanze  and 
Pforte.  These  words  have,  therefore,  undergone  the 
second  stage  of  consonantal  shifting  and  must  have 
been  borrowed  before  it  took  place.  On  the  other  hand 
Peek  (picem),  Pein  (prena),  Pilgrim  (peregrinus),  came 
into  German  subsequent  to  this  change.  It  is  evident 
from  many  German  words  that  those  who  used  them  fre. 
quently  modified  their  form  in  order  to  bring  them  into 
closer  harmony  with  the  genius  of  the  language ;  that  is, 
they  exhibit  the  effects  of  an  evident  effort  so  to  change 
their  structure  as  to  draw  them  into  etymological  relation 
to  other  and  more  familiar  words,  for  the  purpose  of  mak- 
ing them  more  easily  intelligible.  This  is  the  case  in  Bi- 
belbuch,  Dammhirsch,  Grenzmark,  Maulesel  and  their  like, 
where  the  two  parts  of  the  compound  mean  substantially 
the  same  thing.  In  other  cases,  what  may  be  called  a  folk- 
etymology  has  brought  about  the  entire  transformation  of 
a  word,  so  that  Arcubalista  became  Armbrust,  Agrimonia 
Odermennig,  and  cold  cream,  Gold  creme. 

This  tendency  of  the  human  mind  has  brought  about  a  transfor- 
mation of  a  large  number  of  place-names  and  given  rise  to  many 
local  legends.  Familiar  instances  are  the  change  from  Pileatus  to 
Pilatus,  the  latter  name  then  becoming  the  nucleus  about  which 
grew  the  legend  of  the  sojourn  and  death  of  the  well  known  Roman 
governor  upon  this  mountain ;  the  metamorphosis  of  the  name 
Mautturm  into  Mausturm  and  the  story  of  bishop  Hatto  who  was 
devoured  by  swarms  of  rats  and  mice ;  and  the  change  of  the  name 
of  Martyrerkapelle  near  Bonn  into  Mordkapelle. 

It  will  be  readily  understood  that  the  meanings  no  less  than  the 
forms  of  words  undergo  a  change,  a  statement  that  is  equally  true  of 


214  A  History  of  the  German  Language 

native  and  loau-words.  '  Dictare '  and  Dichten  are  related  to  each 
other  as  ancestor  and  descendant,  hut  they  are  far  from  signifying 
the  same  thing.  The  same  may  be  said  of  '  poena  '  and  Pein,  '  puteus ' 
and  Pfutze,  etc. 

The  best  English  work  known  to  me  on  popular  etymol- 
ogies is,  Folk-Etymology,  by  Rev.  A.  S.  Palmer,  London, 
1882.  Taylor's  Words  and  Places  contains  some  interesting 
matter  of  the  same  subject. 


SPECIAL  PART. 


THE  NEW  HIGH  GERMAN  ORTHOGRAPHY. 

IN  ORDER  to  represent  adequately,  by  means  of  graphic 
signs,  all  the  sounds  of  a  language  there  would  be 
necessary  as  many  characters  as  there  are  sounds.  Each 
sign  would  need  to  stand  for  one  and  the  same  sound,  at 
all  times  and  for  no  other.  The  German  language  is  a 
considerable  distance  from  such  an  ideal,  though  it  ap- 
proaches more  nearly  thereto  than  the  English  does.  Dif- 
ferent letters  and  diphthongs  are  used  to  designate  the 
same  sound  :  for  example,  (Sie)  waren  is  pronounced  ex- 
actly like  (die)  Wahren  and  (die)  Waaren,  or  Waren.  Voll 
has  the  same  initial  sound  with  its  primitive  fiillen,  and 
so  has  vor  with  the  related  fur.  On  the  other  hand,  the 
same  graphic  sign  or  signs  represent  different  sounds. 
For  example,  ch  in  Bach,  Loch,  erlaucht,  must  not  be 
sounded  as  in  Bdche,  Locher,  erleuchtet,  Milch,  mancher; 
after  a,  o  and  u  it  is  formed  further  back  in  the  throat  than 
after  e,  i,  o,  u  and  consonants.  In  words  like  Wachs,  Dachs, 
seeks,  the  ch  is  pronounced  like  k.  The  combination  ch  is 
also  evidence  of  the  fact  that  in  some  cases  two  letters  are 
employed  to  designate  a  single  sound.  The  same  is  true 
in  those  instances  where  ie  is  used  to  represent  the  simple 
long  z,  while  ng  in  lang,  Gang,  and  sch,  are  always  used 
as  simple  sounds.  The  converse  is  likewise  found.  The 
single  letters  2  and  x  each  represents  the  double  sounds 
t-Vs  and  k+s.  It  will  be  evident  from  what  has  just  been 
said  that  it  is  important  to  distinguish  between  the  letters 
of  a  language  and  the  sounds  for  which  they  stand. 

The  lack  of  congruity  between  the  letters  and  sounds 
of  the  German  language  arises  from  the  manner  in  which 

(215) 


216  A  History  of  the  German  Language 

the  latter  came  to  be  graphically  represented.  Every 
person  learns  to  write  from  another  who  in  turn  has  learnt 
the  art  from  a  third ;  and  so  on.  In  this  way  the  orthog- 
raphy of  a  language  gains  a  considerable  degree  of  fixed- 
ness while  the  spoken  language  undergoes  changes.  A 
person  may  therefore  write  as  his  father  or  his  grandfather 
wrote,  but  he  will  talk  like  his  contemporaries.  In  a  cen- 
tury the  changes  are  generally  few  and  unimportant,  and 
usually  affect  but  a  small  number  of  words ;  but  in  the 
course  of  several  hundred  years  the  divergence  is  some- 
times quite  marked.  The  invention  of  printing  was  an 
important  event  not  only  in  so  far  as  it  affected  German 
orthography  but  that  of  all  modern  languages.  By  means 
of  the  printing  press  it  was  in  the  main  fixed,  as  it  now 
stands,  three  or  four  centuries  ago  notwithstanding  the 
fact  that  during  this  period  many  phonetic  changes  have 
crept  into  the  language.  The  Germans  write  ei  and  pro- 
nounce ai  or  rather  ae.  In  such  words  as  lieb,  Dieb,  the  e 
was  originally  pronounced  though  it  is  now  silent  except 
in  some  dialects.  Such  words  as  steif  and  spitz  are  no 
longer  pronounced  as  written,  but  schteif  and  schpitz. 
The  graphic  change  did  not  keep  pace  with  the  change  in 
pronunciation.  In  the  words  Ratte,  Vetter,  Himmel,  Don- 
ner,  and  their  kind,  a  double  consonant  is  written  and  a 
single  one  pronounced.  This  is  easily  verified  by  an  ex- 
periment that  any  one  can  make.  Because  double  letters 
are  hardly  ever  necessary  the  advocates  of  spelling  reform 
discard  them  in  most  cases.  The  reason  of  the  doubling 
is  as  follows :  in  the  M.  H.  G.  there  were  real  double  con- 
sonants, or  rather,  consonants  pronounced  long,  as  is  still 
the  case  in  modern  Italian.  During  the  transition  from 
the  M.  H.  G.  to  the  N.  H.  G.  nearly  all  short  sounds  were 
lengthened  where  they  stood  before  single  consonants,  but 
the  vowels  before  double  consonants  remained  short.  In 
the  spoken  language  the  double  consonants  were  in  many 
cases  dropped,  but  retained  in  writing,  and  the  impression 


A  History  of  the  German  Language  217 

gradually  prevailed  that  a  short  vowel  was  necessarily  as- 
sociated with  a  double  consonant.  The  result  was  that 
consonants  were  frequently  duplicated  in  writing  where 
they  had  never  been  so  pronounced,  if  a  short  vowel  hap- 
pened to  be  conserved  before  a  single  consonant.  Thus 
the  M.  H.  G.  himel  and  doner  came  to  be  written  Himmel 
and  Donner,  because  the  older  stimme  and  sonne  are  now 
pronounced  Stime  and  Sbne. 

These  defects  of  the  N.  H.  G.  orthography  are  not  with- 
out significance  for  the  language.  Written  speech  reacts, 
among  the- educated,  upon  the  spoken  language  and  mod- 
ifies it.  Many  persons  see  a  radical  difference  between 
the  words  slets,  bestatigen,  leer,  schwer,  erklaren,  gefahr- 
lich  and  their  like,  when,  in  truth,  the  diphthong  ^  is 
common  to  them  all.  The  Esthonian  Germans  pronounce 
Haide,  Kaiser,  Maid,  as  diphthongs  of  which  the  first  part 
is  an  a,  but  Heide,  Kemer,  Meineid,  with  a  distinct  e  in  the 
same  place.  In  the  M.  H.  G.  all  these  words  had  ei  as  the 
radical  vowels,  but  in  contemporary  German  dialects  no 
distinction  is  made  between  them. 


THE  ACCENT  OR  INTONATION  OF  THE   GERMAN. 

The  syllables  that  constitute  a  word  or  a  sentence  may 
be  distinguished  from  one  another  in  one  of  two  ways :  a 
difference  may  be  made  in  the  pitch  of  the  tones,  or  in  the 
force  with  which  they  are  uttered.  As  regards  the  former, 
the  variation  in  a  single  word  is  but  slight,  and  therefore 
unimportant ;  but  the  case  is  different  when  we  take  into 
account  an  entire  sentence.  There  is  a  wide  difference  in 
the  manner  in  which  affirmative,  interrogative  and  horta- 
tory sentences  are  uttered.  In  a  simple,  affirmative  sen- 
tence the  inflection  is,  in  general,  the  falling.  If  we 
were  to  set  Er  geht  fort  to  the  notes  of  the  musical  scale 
we  should  place  the  last  word  on  about  the  fifth  below  the 
15 


218  A  History  of  the  German  Language 

key-note.  In  interrogative  and  hortatory  sentences  the 
melody  naturally  rises, — in  the  former  usually  to  the  ex- 
tent of  an  octave.  In  the  sentence  Er  geht  fort?  the  last 
word  would  thus  be  placed  on  the  eighth  note  above  the 
other  two,  while  in  Er  geht  fort!  (go  away,  betake  your- 
self off!)  it  would  be  placed  in  the  fourth  above.  When  a 
sentence  is  incomplete  in  form  or  sense  by  reason  of  some- 
thing yet  to  follow  that  is  not  expressed  it  ends  with  the 
rising  inflection.  The  first  part  of  a  compound  or  com- 
plex sentence  usually  closes  with  the  rising  inflection.  It 
can  hardly  be  said  that  the  cause  of  these  various  inflec- 
tions is  as  yet  well  understood,  but  it  probably  lies  in  the 
general  character  of  the  tones  themselves.  However,  as 
this  is  not  a  question  that  concerns  the  German  alone,  but 
is  treated  in  every  Manual  of  Elocution  it  need  not  detain 
us  further  here. 

In  the  second  place,  the  tones  that  enter  into  a  sentence 
are  distinguished  from  each  other  dynamically ;  and  it  is 
to  this  distinction  that  we  have  reference  when  we  speak 
of  accent.  It  is  well  to  remember,  too,  that  accent  in  a 
word  and  emphasis  in  a  sentence  are  not  two  radically 
distinct  things.  The  Germans  speak  of  Hochton  (high 
tone)  and  designate  syllables  as  hochbetont  as  if  accent  was 
concerned  only' with  the  pitch  or  elevation  of  sounds  and 
not  with  their  force.  The  reason  of  this  is  that  the  force 
or  stress  with  which  a  tone  is  uttered  generally  has  some 
connection  with  its  pitch,  not  only  in  German  but  in  most 
other  languages.  The  different  words  of  a  sentence  are 
usually  uttered  with  a  stress  proportioned  to  their  impor- 
tance in  it,  viewed  from  the  standpoint  of  logic.  It  is  also 
true  to  a  considerable  extent  that  the  most  important  syl- 
lable of  a  word  is  pronounced  with  the  greatest  stress.  In 
accordance  with  this  principle,  almost  any  syllable  of  a 
word  may  receive  the  accent  under  particular  circum- 
stances. We  might  say  of  a  person,  er  ist  bekleidet,  mcht 
bem&lt;  or,  er  ist  bekleidet,  nicht  entkletdet ;  bekleidet,  mcht 


A  History  of  the  German  Language  219 

bekleidend.  Except  in  cases  of  marked  antithesis  the 
German,  like  the  English,  in  distinction  from  the  Latin 
and  especially  the  Greek,  has  the  accent  on  the  same  syl- 
lable of  a  word  under  all  circumstances,  a  fact  that  has  al- 
ready been  briefly  adverted  to.  For  example,  ein,  einig, 
Einigkeit,  Einigkeitsbestrebungen  all  have  the  accent  on  the 
first  syllable,  though  the  words  differ  greatly  in  length. 
The  syllable  that  regularly  takes  the  accent  is  in  all  sim- 
ple words  the  radical  or  first  syllable.  The  apparent  ex- 
ceptions offered  by  such  words  as  Jagerei,  Biiberei,  han- 
tieren,  stolzieren  have  been  caused  by  French  influence. 
These  and  other  similar  words  are  not  pure  German. 
See  also  page  191. 

But,  as  we  have  seen,  there  is  a  tendency  to  change  the 
accent  of  foreign  words  to  the  first  syllable  during  the 
process  of  naturalization  in  German.  The  English  lan- 
guage, too,  furnishes  many  examples  of  this  gradual  re- 
cession of  the  accent.  In  compound  words  the  rule  for 
the  accent  is  not  so  simple.  Of  great  importance  in  such 
cases  is  the  logical  relation  which  the  first  part  of  the  com- 
pound bears  to  the  second. 

In  the  majority  of  examples  the  first  member  of  the 
compound  defines  or  limits  the  second.  When  in  such 
cases  the  first  member  is  a  noun,  adjective,  or  verb, — that 
is,  a  word  that  expresses  a  complete  concept,  the  accent  falls 
upon  it,  as  Mondschein,  Griinspecht,  Tretrad  (tread-wheel). 
This  rule  also  holds  good  for  those  cases  where  adjectives, 
prepositions,  or  particles  are  used  to  form  compounds 
with  nouns  or  adjectives,  as  Wiedertaufer,  Anlwort,  Ueber- 
flusz,  Variant,  Missetat  (misdeed). 

When  compounds  are  constituted  of  a  particle  and  a 
verb  they  may  be  combined  in  one  of  two  ways :  if  the 
prefix  is  inseparable  the  radical  portion  of  the  verb  takes 
the  accent,  but  if  it  is  separable  the  accent  falls  upon  the 
prefix.  It  is  thus  that  we  get  belehren  (instruct),  enlnehmen 
(take  from),  erfdhren,  mis) 'alien  (displease),  verrathen  (be- 


220  A  History  of  the  German  Language 

tray),  zerreiszen  (tear  in  pieces) ;  but  beistehen  (assist),  f6rt- 
fallen,  weggehen.  A  considerable  number  of  particles 
may  be  either  separable  or  inseparable  parts  of  a  com- 
pound :  the  two  words  though  spelled  alike  do  not  have 
the  same  meaning  and  are  pronounced  differently,  as 
ctitrchbrechen  (intrans.)  and  durchbrechen  (trans.),  hinter- 
treiben  (drive  behind)  and  hintertreiben  (thwart),  ubersetzen 
(cross)  and  iiberst'tzen  (translate),  nmgehen  (deal  with)  and 
umgehen  (avoid). 

The  laws  governing  the  accentuation  of  words  that  are 
compounded  with  particles  as  prefixes,  as  above  enun- 
ciated, seem  in  a  number  of  cases  to  conflict  with  each 
other. 

Such  words  as  Bescheid  (advice),  Ewberung  (conquest), 
Verl&ger  (publisher),  seem  at  first  sight  to  have  a  prepo- 
sitional prefix;  which  according  to  the  rule  above  laid 
down  would  require  the  accent.  In  fact,  however,  there 
are  no  such  words  as  Scheid,  Oberung^  and  L&ger;  their 
apparent  compounds  are  not  formed  of  prefix  and  substan- 
tive but  are  derivatives  of  beschkiden,  erobern,  and  verlkgen. 
They,  therefore,  rightly  receive  the  accent  of  verbal  com- 
posites. On  the  other  hand  words  like  antworten,  urkun- 
den  and  iirtheilen  are  not  at  variance  with  the  rule  for  the 
reason  that  they  are  derived  from  Antwort,  Urkunde  and 
Urtheil  (judgment). 

But  it  sometimes  occurs  that  the  second  member  of  a 
compound  is  not  materially,  or  not  at  all,  changed  in 
meaning  by  its  prepositional  or  adverbial  prefix.  In  such 
cases  the  second  member  receives  the  accent,  or  the  accent 
oscillates  between  the  first  and  second  member  of  the  com- 
posite. Such  is  the  case  with  the  prefix  ge-  in  leiten  and 
geleiten,  streng  and  gestreng,  Wasser  and  Gewasser,  be- 
tween which  couplets  there  is  but  a  slight  shade  of  differ- 
ence. The  same  is  true  as  to  the  prefix  voll-  in  vollenden, 
vollfiihren  ;  as  to  all-  in  attgiitig,  allmachtig,  and  others. 
Sometimes  the  prefix  in  composites  merely  intensifies  the 


A  History  of  the  German  Language  221 

radical  meaning  of  the  word  as  in  groszmachtig,  klein- 
winzig,  mittendrinn,  &c. 

The  German  also  possesses  a  number  of  words  which 
when  occupying  the  place  of  prefix,  may  either  cause  a 
change  of  meaning  or  be  merely  intensive :  compare 
st&nreich  (stony)  with  steinreich  ("  mighty  "  rich)  blutdrm 
(very  poor)  with  btiitarm  (exanguious),  bombenfest  and  bom- 
benfest.  It  is  to  be  noted,  however,  that  both  compounds 
are  sometimes  accented  alike,  in  which  case  the  sense 
must  determine  which  of  the  two  is  meant. 

Of  still  less  importance  is  the  first  member  of  a  com- 
pound when  the  speaker  is  not  conscious  of  the  relation 
existing  between  its  two  parts.  This  is  usually  the  case 
when  the  second  member  no  longer  has  a  separate  exist- 
ence. Notwendig  is  sometimes  pronounced  with  the  chief 
stress  on  the  first  syllable  and  sometimes  on  the  second, 
because  there  is  no  such  word  as  wendig.  The  same  re- 
mark applies  to  leibhaftig,  and  leibhaftig,  willkommen 
and  willkommen,  wahrscheinlich  and  wahrscheinlich,  with 
a  number  of  others.  This  fact  will  also  explain  the 
pronunciation  of  Forelle  (trout)  and  lebendig  (living).  In 
the  M.  H.  G.  these  words  were  accented  on  the  first 
syllable  and  were  simply  derivatives.  But  as  there  are  in 
the  N.  H.  G.  no  analogous  words  with  the  termination 
-endig  and  -elle,  these  vocables  came  to  be  regarded  as 
compounds  and  to  be  accented  according  to  the  rule  ap- 
plicable in  such  cases.  In  adjective  compounds  that  have 
the  prefix  un-  the  accent  rests  on  this  when  the  second 
part  also  exists  as  an  independent  word ;  when  not,  then 
the  accent  is  upon  the  second  part  of  the  word.  We  say 
schon  and  imschon,  freundlich  and  imfreundhch,  fruchtbar 
and  unfrMchtbar,  but  unbeschreiblich,  unermeszlich,  unsag- 
lich,  nnzahlich,  because  there  are  no  such  words  as  be- 
schreiblich,ermeszlich,  etc.  In  the  examination  of  compound 
words  it  is  likewise  of  importance  to  note  the  syllable  that 
has  the  so-called  secondary  accent.  It  is  true,  in  general, 


222  A  History  of  the  German  Language 

that  this  accent  would  falls  upon  that  syllable  of  the  simple 
word  that  enters  into  the  compound  if  it  stands  independ- 
ently. We  say  Sommerarbeit,  hinterltsttg,  Unemigkeit, 
placing  the  secondary  stress  on  -ar-,  -list-,  and  -ein-,  be- 
cause the  words  Arbeit,  listig  and  Einigkeit,  when  standing 
alone,  have  the  accent  on  these  syllables.  This  rule, 
while  true  in  general,  is  however  subject  to  two  excep- 
tions :  if  the  first  member  of  the  compound  is  a  monosyl- 
lable with  a  strong  secondary  accent,  and  if  the  second 
member,  a  syllable  with  a  strong  secondary  stress,  follows 
directly  upon  that  having  the  primary  accent,  there  is  an 
evident  tendency  to  conform  to  a  general  law  of  the  N.  H. 
G.,  namely,  to  pronounce  successive  syllables  with  an  al- 
ternating strong  and  weak  accent.  By  pronouncing  the 
words  that  constitute  a  sentence  in  this  way,  the  sentence 
itself  moves  forward  with  a  sort  of  rhythmic  or  wave-like 
motion  that  gives  pleasure  to  the  ear.  For  this  reason  we 
say  Jinabsichtlich,  imvorsichtig,  in  spite  of  the  fact  that 
absichtlich  and  vdrsichtig vxe.  correct.  In  the  same  category 
fall  such  words  as  Amtsmisbrauch,  Voranzeige,  Vorurtheil, 
unfruchtbar,  etc. 

THE   DOCTRINE   OF    SOUNDS   IN   GERMAN. 

A  knowledge  of  the  laws  of  accent  is  not  only  important 
in  itself,  but  also  for  the  additional  reason  that  the  relation 
of  accented  to  unaccented  syllables  in  a  word  has  much  in- 
fluence upon  its  form.  The  changes  which  in  process  of  time 
take  place  in  strongly  accented  syllables  are  usually  of  a 
quite  different  kind  from  those  occurring  in  syllables  that  are 
habitually  uttered  with  but  a  slight  stress.  When,  therefore, 
it  is  proposed  to  consider  the  morphology  of  the  German 
vowels  it  is  important  to  distinguish  carefully  between  those 
that  are  accented  and  those  that  are  unaccented.  It  is  in  the 
former,  as  has  been  before  indicated,  that  the  most  impor- 
tant changes  have  taken  place,  and  here  lies  the  chief  dif- 
ference between  the  Old  and  the  New  German,  First  and 


A  History  of  the  German  Language  223 

foremost,  attention  needs  to  be  called  to  the  long  M.  H.  G. 
vowels  i,  u  and  ii  (written  iu)  which  appear  in  the  N.  H.  G. 
as  ei,  au  and  eu,  that  is,  as  diphthongs.  This  transforma- 
tion began  in  the  Bavaro-Austrian  dialect  and  appears  as 
early  as  the  twelfth  century.  In  its  progress  it  gradually 
embraced  the  dialects  of  Central  Germany,  South  and 
East  Franconia  and  Swabia  ;  but  the  Alemanian  and  Low 
German  remained  unaffected.  We  find,  therefore,  that  the 
N.  H.  G.  mein,  dein  and  sein  are  represented  by  the  Ale- 
manian, Low  German  and  M.  H.  G.  min,  din  and  sin.  The 
M.  H.  G.  hus,  mi'is,  hiuie  correspond  to  the  N.  H.  G.  Haus, 
Matis,  heute.  In  unaccented  syllables  the  original  simple 
vowel  has  in  some  cases  remained,  probably  for  the  reason 
that  it  had  been  shortened  before  diphthongs  began  to  ap- 
pear in  the  language.  Consequently  we  have  reich  along- 
side of  Heinrich,  Friedrich,  Gdnserich  together  with  Leiche, 
Leichnam  and  their  derivatives  in  -lick.  See  p.  176. 
The  N.  H.  G.,  however,  contains  a  tolerably  long  list  of 
words  with  a  single  vowel  in  the  place  of  a  former  diph- 
thong. These  are,  for  the  most  part,  loan-words  from  the 
Old  German,  the  Low  German  and  the  Alemanian.  For 
this  reason  we  have  both  Schweiz  and  Schwys,  Neid  and 
Nithart,  Auerochs  and  Ur,  taunen  and  Runen,  Gertrud  and 
traut,  Bruno  and  braun,  Hnne  and  Heune. 

The  three  phonetic  tendencies  above  pointed  out  are  all 
due  to  the  same  law, — they  indicate  the  influence  of  the 
vowel  sound  represented  by  the  letter  a :  in  fact  Germans 
even  to-day  pronounce  mein  and  heute  as  if  written  main 
and  halite.  The  same  tendency  began  to  manifest  itself 
in  the  three  diphthongs  that  existed  in  the  Old  German ; 
the  M.  H.  G.  ei  also  passed  into  at\  so  that  keiser,  for  ex- 
ample, became  Kaiser  in  Modern  German  ;  the  M.  H.  G. 
ou  passed  into  au,  so  that  for  bourn  we  now  have  Baum ; 
and  the  M.  H.  G.  ou  likewise  was  changed  into  au  (-au), 
that  is,  bourne  into  N.  H.  G.  Bdume.  It  will  be  seen  that 
the  N.  H.  G.  ei  pronounced,  and  occasionally  written,  at, 


224  A  History  of  the  German  Language 

represents  an  older  I  and  £/,  that  is,  the  N.  H.  G.  aii  in 
sound,  but  written  eu  and  du,  and  au  have  each  absorbed 
two  sounds  of  the  M.  H.  G.  The  process  may  be  repre- 
sented thus : 

N.  H.  G.  ei  —  M.  H.  G.  I  and  «, 
N.  H.  G.  eu=  M.  H.  G.  iu  and  ou, 
N.  H.  G.  au  =  M.  H.  G.  d  and  ou. 

The  pronunciation  is,  however,  not  quite  uniform 
throughout  Germany.  The  Middle  and  Low  Germans, 
when  speaking  the  N.  H.  G.,  no  longer  make  a  distinction, 
but  the  South  Germans  make  a  slight  difference  either  in 
the  character  or  in  the  length  of  the  tones.  The  M.  H.  G. 
wide  (willow)  becomes  We;de  and  wise  (manner),  Weise; 
as  the  M.  H.  G.  weide  and  weise  became  Wcride9&&  Waise 
(a+i),  and  the  M.  H.  G.  tube  is  pronounced  Taube,  but 
taub  (deaf)  represents  the  M.  H.  G.  toube.  In  like  manner 
reuen  (pronounced  raiien)  represents  an  older  nuwen  and 
streuen  (pronounced  straiten)  an  earlier  strouwen.  To  re- 
peat in  other  words  what  has  been  said  above :  in  South 
Germany  the  diphthong  ei  has  two  slightly  different 
sounds ;  and  the  statement  is  true  of  au  and  <?#,  while  in 
Middle  and  North  Germany,  the  two  couplets  of  sounds 
are  alike.  This  is  to  be  explained  by  the  fact  that  the  people 
of  the  former  section  maintain  in  pronunciation  though  not 
in  print  a  distinction  that  formerly  existed  throughout  Ger- 
many, while  those  of  the  latter  have  lost  it.  But  there  is  like- 
wise a  tendency  in  the  German  to  separate  the  old  single 
vowels  into  diphthongs.  The  M.  H.  G.  sounds  represented 
by  />,  «0,  and  tie  appear  in  Modern  German  as  /,  u,  and  z/,  that 
is,  //^/"becomes  lief^  guot  becomes^/ and  grtiesen  becomes 
gruszen.  This  process  of  simplification  begins  to  show 
itself  at  the  close  of  the  M.  H.  G.  period  and  seems  to  have 
started  in  Central  Germany.  The  Bavarian  and  the  Ale- 
manian,  however,  retain  the  old  diphthongs  to  the  present 
day,  with  here  and  there  a  slight  change  in  the  second 
yowel,  though  the  variation  is  not  quite  the  same  in  the 


A  History  of  the  German  Language  225 

two  dialects.  In  the  Alemanian  the  words  Bube,  Blut, 
Gut,  Hut,  of  the  N.  H.  G.  are  Bueb,  Bluet^  Guet,  and  Huet, 
but  in  the  Bavarian,  usually,  Buab,  Bluat,  etc.  In  view 
of  the  fact  that  the  long  i-sound  of  the  Modern  German 
generally  originated  from  ie,  it  is  easy  to  understand  how 
this  diphthong  comes  to  be  written  for  every  long  /,  in- 
cluding even  those  cases  where  it  has  a  different  origin. 
Such  instances  are  numerous.  It  is  easy  to  observe  that 
in  the  same  word  the  radical  vowel  sound  is  sometimes 
pronounced  long  and  sometimes  short,  either  because  cer- 
tain words  exhibit  a  long,  others  a  short  vowel ;  or  because 
the  same  vowel  is  at  one  time  pronounced  short  and  at 
another,  long.  We  have,  for  example,  wir  nehmen,  ihr 
nehmt,  but  er  nimmt,  du  nimmst,  nimm,  where  the  double 
consonant  is  the  sign  of  a  short  vowel;  geben,  wir  geben, 
but  du  gibst,  er  gibt,  gib  or  giebst,  giebt,  gieb.  The  pronun- 
ciation of  des  Gldses,  des  Tages,  des  Weges  is  universal ;  but 
the  South  Germans  say  Glas,  Tag,  Weg,  while  in  North 
Germany  one  often  hears  Glas,  Tag  and  Weg.  In  like 
manner  we  get  Herzog  and  Hersog,  jenseits  and  jenseits. 
How  are  these  variations  to  be  explained?  The  reply  is 
that  where  the  same  word  exists  in  two  forms  that  have 
but  a  single  signification  it  is  probable  that  one  represents 
the  regular  process  of  phonetic  development,  but  that  the 
other  is  due  to  the  force  of  analogy,  a  process  that  has 
been  briefly  explained  on  p.  122.  Applying  these  principles 
to  the  cases  just  cited  we  find  that  the  North  German  pro- 
nunciation exhibits  the  original,  that  is,  das  Glas,  des 
Gldses.  Going  back  to  the  M.  H.  G.  we  find  glas,  glases, 
in  conformity  with  a  law  according  to  which  a  short  vowel 
in  the  M.  H.  G.  always  appears  long  in  the  N.  H.  G.  when 
it  stands  before  a  single  consonant  followed  by  another 
vowel.  In  closed  syllables  the  radical  vowel  remains  short 
except  that  the  presence  of  an  r  makes  an  exception  to 
this  rule.  This  lengthening  process  first  appears  in  Mid- 
dle Germany  and  in  the  M.  H.  G.  period.  In  the  case  of 


226  A  History  of  the  German  Language 

closed  syllables  that  contain  a  long  vowel  contrary  to  the 
law  here  laid  down,  the  phenomenon  is  to  be  attributed  to 
the  influence  of  those  forms  which  contained  an  open  rad- 
ical syllable :  that  is,  the  reflex  influence  of  Glases  pro- 
duced Glas  and  of  wir  gaben  modified  er  gap  into  er  gab. 
In  the  same  manner  the  primitive  weg  became  Weg 
through  influence  of  Weges ;  the  adverbial  weg  (away)  is 
simply  the  accusative  of  this  noun  which  has  maintained 
its  original  short  vowel  because  its  connection  with  the 
substantive  ceased  to  be  felt.  It  is  true  there  are  excep- 
tions to  the  law  that  the  vowel  of  an  open  syllable  is  al- 
ways long.  If  the  simple  consonant  following  the  radical 
vowel  is  in  turn  followed  by  e\-l,  e+n  or  e+r  the  radical 
vowel  may  be  either  long  or  short.  We  accordingly  find 
both  Makel  and  Makel,  gesotten,  M.  H.  G.  gesoten,  but^v?- 
boien  though  the  M.  H.  G.  is  geboten,  wider,  the  M.  H.  G. 
form  also,  and  wieder,  besides  Vater,  with  the  dialect  form 
V&tter  and  its  derivative  Vetter.  These  apparent  irregu- 
larities have  not  yet  been  satisfactorily  explained. 

The  same  vowel  sounds  that  have  in  some  cases  re- 
mained short  have  in  others  become  short  though  orig- 
inally long.  We  find  nie  alongside  of  nimmer,  the  old 
form  being  niemer,  that  is,  me  mer.  That  Putter  and 
Mutter  were  once  Filter  and  Muter  is  shown  by  the 
Alemanian  and  Bavarian  forms  Fiteter  and  Mueter.  That 
the  ancestors  of  Blatter  and  Jammer  are  blAter  andjdmer 
is  proven  by  the  wide  spread  dialectic  forms  Bloter  and 
Jomer ;  for  in  many  dialects  still  current  the  vowel  6  rep- 
resents not  only  the  6  of  older  words,  but  is  not  unfre- 
quently  a  development  of  an  original  a.  The  literary 
High  German  contains  a  number  of  words  taken  from  dif- 
ferent dialects  that  exhibit  this  change  from  long  a  to  long 
o.  Thus,  we  find  existing  alongside  of  each  other  Atem 
and  Odem,  Wahn  and  Argwohn,  Magsamen  and  Mohn,  etc. 
Mond  is  mane  in  M.  H.  G.  and  the  ancestor  of  Wage  is 
wac.  Further  back  in  the  history  of  the  German  Ian- 


A  History  of  the  German  Language  227 

guage  than  all  these  variations  we  find  the  process  taking 
place  which  the  Germans  call  Umlaut.  This  is  a  modifi- 
cation of  the  radical  or  root  vowel.  It  is  thus  that  Krafte 
is  formed  from  kraft,  mochte  from  mochte,  Hduser  from 
haws,  trdumt  from  traum,  filhre  from  fuhr.  In  all  cases 
the  unmodified  vowel  is  the  original.  It  will  thus  be  seen 
that  the  same  root,  though  not  the  same  form  of  it,  con- 
tains both  the  shorter  and  less  open  vowels  a,  o  and  n,  as 
well  as  their  variants  « ,  o  and  ii.  Now  it  can  be  shown 
by  the  history  of  the  German  as  well  as  by  that  of  other 
languages  that  a  is  more  primitive  than  «,  o,  than  o,  etc. 
The  N.  H.  G.  furnishes  some  hints  on  the  origin  of  the 
unmodified  vowels :  we  have,  for  example,  Kraft  and 
kraftig,  Rom  and  romisch,  Thor  and  thoricht,  Ruhm  and 
ruhmltch,  kosten  and  kostlich,  Graf  and  grcifin,  with  a  host 
of  others.  It  will  be  seen  that  in  all  these  instances  the 
modified  vowel  is  followed  by  an  i  in  the  next  syllable ; 
and  the  fact  is  that  as  long  ago  as  the  O.  H.  G.  period  it 
was  this  i  that  brought  about  the  change  in  the  preceding 
vowel :  for  even  those  words  from  which  it  has  now  dis- 
appeared once  had  it.  In  the  O.  H.  G.  period  krafti  cor- 
responded to  the  modern  Krafte,  mochti  to  mochte,  husir  to 
Hduser,  troumit  to  trdumt,  fuori  to  filhre.  We  may,  there- 
fore, define  Umlaut  as  the  modification  of  a  vowel  by  the 
influence  of  a  subsequent  i. 

There  are  some  words  in  German  which  seem  to  have  a 
modified  vowel  in  the  root  form  and  a  primitive  vowel  in 
some  of  the  derivative  forms.  This  is  sometimes  called 
Rilckumlant  on  the  supposition  that  the  second  change  is 
simply  a  return  to  the  original  form.  Examples  are  bren- 
nen,  preterite  brannte;  rennen,  preterite  rannte;  senden, 
preterite  sandte ;  schon  and  schbn,  fast  and  fest.  In  fact, 
however,  appearances  are  here  deceptive.  It  is  the  cus- 
tom of  grammarians  to  designate  certain  words  or  sylla- 
bles as  radical,  or  primitive,  and  others  as  derivative. 
The  base  of  the  verb  is  usually  found  in  the  present  tense, 


228  A  History  of  the  German  Language 

that  of  the  noun  in  the  singular  number,  and  that  of  the 
adverb  in  the  adjective.  But  the  theory  does  not  always 
correspond  with  the  facts,  and  does  not  in  the  above  ex- 
amples, since  brannte,  schon  and  fast  exhibit  the  primi- 
tive, unmodified  vowel,  while  brennen  is  derived  from 
brannian,  fest  from  fasti,  and  schon  from  sconi. 

The  sound  represented  by  e  in  the  N.  H.  G.,  of  which 
the  ancestor  is  a,  is  written  in  two  ways,  either  as  a  or  e ; 
in  like  manner  the  Umlaut  of  au,  as  du  or  en.  The  modi- 
fied a  (a]  is  employed  when  there  is  a  real  or  fancied  con- 
nection between  it  and  the  original  or  radical  #,  as  Band 
and  Bander,  Wahl  and  wdhlen,  Haus  and  Hauser,  Traum 
traumen;  on  the  other  hand,  e  is  used  where  the  connec- 
tion has  been  forgotten,  as  streng,  O.  H.  G.  strangi;  leugnen, 
M.  H.  G.  lougnen,  O.  H.  G.  louginon.  These  are  cases  in 
which  the  same  radical  vowel  exist  in  a  number  of  deriva- 
tives, in  some  of  which  it  is  felt  and  in  others  not.  For 
example,  faJire  is  the  ancestor  not  only  of  Fdhrte  and 
Fahrmann,  but  also  of  Ferge  ( ferry-man  )  and  fertig;  to 
Schlacht  belong  not  only  Schldchter,  but  also  Geschlecht, 
which  originally  meant  the  same  with  Schlag,  as  may  be 
seen  in  MenscJienschlag  (race,  type  of  men). 

In  the  study  of  these  and  similar  phenomena  the  reader 
needs  to  keep  constantly  in  mind  that  the  spoken  lan- 
guage preceded  the  written  by  a  long  interval,  and  that 
even  after  writing  had  come  into  vogue  to  some  extent 
there  were  thousands  who  used  their  native  speech  orally 
only.  When  words  began  to  be  put  on  parchment  and 
paper  their  pronunciation  had  been  in  the  main  fixed,  and 
could  rarely  be  modified.  Besides,  most  languages  are 
written  a  long  time  before  the  etymological  relations  of 
words  are  understood,  and  the  efforts  of  scholars,  where 
they  have  tried  to  represent  these  relations,  have  for  the 
most  part  remained  without  permanent  results. 

Different  from,  and  yet  closely  related  to  the  umlaut,  is 
the  breaking  or  splitting  of  a  vowel.  In  many  cases  the 


229 

same  radical  vowel  contains  both  e  (a)  and  /,  as  in  gebdren 
and  gebiert,  Erde  and  irden,  Herde  and  Hirte.  These 
changes  have  likewise  been  wrought  by  the  influence  of 
the  final  vowel.  In  the  O.  H.  G.  the  words  above  given 
were  phonetically  represented  by  gaberan  gabirit,  erda  irdin, 
Jierta  hirti.  In  all  cases  the  radical  vowel  of  the  stem  is  *-, 
as  may  be  seen  in  the  corresponding  Latin  and  Greek 
words  fero  and  <£epw;  the  e  remained  when  followed  by  #, 
but  was  changed  to  i  when  succeded  by  the  same  letter. 
This  law  has  been  deduced  by  the  examination  of  so  large 
a  number  of  words  that  it  is  safe  to  assume  when,  for  in- 
stance, we  find  Gebirge  existing  alongside  of  Berg,  and 
Gefilde  alongside  of  Feld,  that  we  have  in  Feld  and  Berg 
the  influence  of  an  a.  This  modification  of  e  before  i  into 
the  latter  took  place  in  prehistoric  times.  Until  recently 
philologists  were  generally  of  the  opinion  that  the  origi- 
nal vowel  was  /,  and  that  this  letter  had  passed  ( or  broken  ) 
into  e.  This  e  corresponds  to  the  primitive  Indo-European 
*-,  and  should  be  carefully  distinguished  from  the  same 
letter  when  it  is  the  representative  of  a  modified  a.  Sev- 
eral German  dialects  have  preserved,  in  their  pronuncia- 
tion, the  distinction  between  the  two  sounds.  Here,  as  in 
many  other  cases,  the  Alemanian  and  Swabian  have  ad- 
hered most  tenaciously  to  the  archaic  forms,  the  broken  e 
being  pronounced  somewhat  like  # ,  and  the  modified  e  with 
a  nearer  approach  to  i. 

The  views  regarding  the  influence  of  the  a-sound  upon 
e  and  i  which  have  proved  to  be  erroneous,  are  correct  with 
reference  to  u  and  0,  or  rather  it  and  0,  since  the  old  u  was 
modified  in  the  O.  H.  G.  period  by  a  subsequent  i.  The 
forms  wir  wurden  and  geworden,  ich  wiirfe  and  geworfen^ 
fur  and  vor  take  us  back  to  the  O.  H.  G.  wurdun-gawor- 
dan,  wurfi-gaworfan,  fun-fora.  Here  the  original  u  per- 
sisted before  i  and  u  in  the  final  syllable ;  in  other  words 
when  it  occurred  before  /it  afterward  changed  into  ii\  but 
it  was  later  broken  to  o  by  the  influence  of  a  subsequent 


230  A  History  of  the  German,  Language 

a, — a  phenomenon  which  likewise  took  place  in  the  Gen- 
eral Germanic  stage  of  the  language.  This  breaking  did 
not  take  place  when  u  was  followed  by  a  nasal  consonant ; 
so  that  we  have  gefunden,  gesungen,  in  spite  of  the  fact 
that  the  O.  H.  G.  forms  TN^Z  gafundan,  gasungan.  It  will 
be  readily  seen  that  if  the  law  had  been  universal  in  its 
application  we  should  have  gefonden  and  gesongen,  just  as 
we  have  geworfen  and  geworden.  This  u  has  not  only 
undergone  the  breaking  process  when  it  stood  alone  but 
also  when  it  formed  a  diphthong  with  z,  that  is  iu.  In  the 
older  N.  H.  G.  we  find  the  inflections  du  fleugst,  er  fleugt, 
ihrflieget,  to  which  correspond  the  M.  H.  G.  in  older  forms 
du  fliugest,  er  fliuget,  ihr  flieget,  and  the  O.  H.  G.  or  still 
older  du  fliugist,  er  fliugit,  ihr  fliogat.  We  see,  therefore, 
that  iu  stands  in  the  same  relation  to  io  that  u  does  to  o. 
It  will  thus  be  evident  that  we  have  here  in  the  change 
from  u  to  o  and  from  iu  to  io  (ie]  the  data  for  determining 
with  almost  absolute  certainty  what  the  final  syllable  must 
have  been  originally.  Fiille  alongside  of  voll  points  to  an 
older  fulli,  and  voll  must  have  lost  a  final  a;  similarly  siech 
and  Seucheare.  evidence  of  an  older  siuhhi,  the  intermediary 
M.  H.  G.  being  siuche  (sick).  The  M.  G.  dialects  exhibit 
some  apparent  examples  of  breaking  which  are,  however, 
not  genuine,  u  being  sometimes  modified  to  o,  and  u  to  0, 
which  is  not  due  to  the  influence  of  a  succeeding  a.  For 
example,  the  N.  H.  G.  Sommer  and  Sohn  are  in  the  M.  H. 
G.  sumer  and  sun.  Other  examples  are  Sonne  and  sunne, 
Konig  and  kiinic,  M'onch  and  munch. 

To  the  phenomena  of  umlaut  and  breaking  are  largely 
due  the  variety  exhibited  by  German  phonology.  Aside 
from  these  two  factors  all  the  variations  are  referable  to 
ablaut  (or  vowel  gradation).  This  influence  may  be  noticed 
in  Grab,  Grube  (M.  H.  G.  gruobe),  grubeln  (O.  H.  G.  gru- 
bilori);  Binde,  Band,  Bund;  Sitz,  Satzung ;  fir ec her,  Brack- 
land,  Bruch;  Schneide,  Schnitt;  flieszen,  Flosz,  Flusz.  This 
variation  of  the  radical  vowel  is  wholly  independent  of  the 


A  History  of  the  German  Language  231 

subsequent  vowel  and  was  fully  developed  in  the  far  dis- 
tant prehistoric  period  of  the  Indo-European  language. 
To  the  English  reader  his  own  language  will  readily  sug- 
gest many  examples ;  and  they  are  equally  numerous  in 
Latin  and  Greek.  Cf.  pello,  pulsus ;  tollo,  tuli ;  semen, 

satUS  J.ayw,  tryov,  T/3€7ro),  TpoTros;  AeiTrco,  eXiTrov,  A.OITTOS;  <^€vya),  <f>vyij. 

At  the  basis  of  these  changes  lie  the  general  principles 
of  vocalization  common  to  the  entire  stock  of  Indo- 
European  languages :  the  accented  syllables  have  for  the 
most  part  stronger  vowels  and  the  unaccented  weaker 
and  thinner  vowels.  The  underlying  causes  we  do  not 
understand,  and  they  will  doubtless  remain  forever  impen- 
etrable. All  we  can  say  is  that  human  thought  and  feel- 
ing are  wont  to  manifest  themselves  through  speech  in 
this  way.  There  is  in  man  an  inherent  dislike  of  monot- 
ony, and  variety  is  produced  by  running  up  and  down,  or 
by  touching  now  this  and  now  that  note  of  the  vowel 
scale.  In  order  to  avoid  repetition  the  general  subject  of 
vowel  gradation  will  be  more  fully  discussed  in  the  chap- 
ter which  treats  of  the  inflection  of  the  verb. 

When  we  compare  German  substantives  and  adjectives 
with  their  cognates  in  Latin  we  at  once  notice  the  ab- 
sence of  endings  in  the  former  compared  with  the  latter. 
We  have  Halm  but  calamus,  Wind  but  ventus,  Fisch  but 
piscis,  Haul  (M.  H.  G.  Mi)  but  cutis,  Jock  (Gothic  juK)  but 
jugum,  Hals  but  collum,  collus  and  colsum,  Horn  but  cornu. 
This  difierence  did  not  exist  in  the  remotest  times ;  but 
after  the  general  Germanic  tongue  had  broken  up  into  its 
various  branches,  we  find,  even  earlier  than  the  existence 
of  any  literary  monuments,  a  tendency  to  neglect,  in  pro- 
nunciation, the  final  syllables.  First  final  s  and  m  began 
to  be  dropped ;  and  later  the  vowels  shared  the  same  fate. 

We  have  already  mentioned  that  the  weakening  of  the 
ultimate  syllables  characterizes  the  transition  from  the 
O.  H.  G.  to  the  M.  H.  G.  Similar  phenomena  are  again 
observable  in  the  development  of  the  N.  H.  G.  from  the 


232 

M.  H.  G.  We  have  des  Tages  or  des  Tags,  dem  Tage  or 
Tag,  Werkes  or  Werks,  Wcrke  or  Werk;  but  usually  des 
Landtags,  dem  Landtag,  Handwerks  and  Handwerk,  but  not 
Landtages  or  Handwetke.  Des  Konigs,  dem  Konig  are  used 
in  preference  to  des  Koniges,  dem  Konige.  Alongside  of 
Friede  we  have  its  derivative  friedlich ;  alongside  of  Heide, 
nieder  and  Himmel,  the  relative  words  heidnisch,  niedrig  and 
himmlisch.  In  nearly  all  cases  we  observe  apocope  of  final 
e  in  unaccented  syllables.  In  those  words  where  this  let- 
ter has  been  suppressed  in  the  middle  of  a  word  it  was 
likewise  unaccented.  The  German  present  participles  are 
almost  always  traceable  to  fuller  forms,  as,  for  example, 
lebend  to  lebende.  Wirtinn  represents  the  M.  H.  G.  wir- 
tinne,  Weisung  M.  H.  G.  wisunge,  Hetzog  herzoge,  Hduslin 
hiuselin.  In  N.  H.  G.  dissyllables  an  unaccented  e  is 
sometimes  retained,  and  sometimes  suppressed  or  apoco- 
pated, a  fact  that  may  be  explained  by  the  place  of  this 
letter  in  connected  discourse.  As  a  further  illustration  of 
the  tendency  to  abbreviate,  it  may  be  stated  that  in  the 
German  dialects  which  have  not  attained  the  dignity  of 
literary  rank  many  words  are  still  more  abbreviated  than 
in  the  written  speech.  Nearly  all  those  words  which  have 
come  from  the  A.-S.  into  English  have  been  shortened 
unless  they  were  monosyllables,  where  abbreviation  was 
impossible.  In  like  manner  the  French,  which  is  hardly 
more  than  corrupt  Latin,  is  almost  entirely  made  up  of 
words  that  have  lost  one  or  more  syllables  in  their  passage 
from  the  ancient  to  the  modern  language. 

In  some  cases  syllables  that  were  originally  but  feebly 
accented  suffered  mutilation  even  when  their  vowel  was 
full-toned.  Jungfer  and  Junker  are  referable  to  older 
Jungfrau  and  Jungherr ;  Nachbar  (neighbor)  may  be  traced 
to  the  M.  H.  G.  nachbure,  one  who  abides  near,  the  modern 
German  words  Bauer  and  bauen  having  developed  a  some- 
what different  signification.  The  doubles  Schultze  and 
Schultheisz  take  us  back  to  the  M.  H.  G.  schultheize.  Zwei- 


A  History  of  the  German  Language  233 

tel,  Drittel  contain  the  word  Teil  in  the  final  syllable,  while 
Urteil  and  Vorteil  are  also  found  as  Urthel  and  Vorthel. 
These  last  double  forms  resulted  either  from  their  receiv- 
ing a  heavier  or  lighter  accent,  as  the  case  might  be,  in 
connected  discourse ;  or  they  for  a  time  followed  the  gen- 
eral law  above  enunciated  until  with  the  spread  of  intelli- 
gence it  began  to  be  perceived  that  -thel  is  really  a  sepa- 
rate word,  when  it  was  restored  to  its  original  form.  The 
latter  is  the  most  probable  explanation,  as  illiterate  per- 
sons still  use  the  lighter  syllable.  In  general  the  dialects, 
especially  those  of  South  Germany,  carry  the  process  of 
abbreviation  and  lightening  farther  than  the  literary  lan- 
guage. Hebel,  a  native  of  Basel,  who  wrote  largely  in  the 
Alemanian  uses  Arfel,  Hampfel,  Mump/el,  for  Armvoll, 
Handvoll  and  Mundvoll.  Wingert  signifies  Weingarten, 
while  Rechnig  and  Zitig  mean  Rechnung  and  Zeitung.  The 
most  important  phenomenon  noticeable  among  the  conso- 
nants is  due  to  what  is  known  as  the  law  of  the  rotation 
of  mutes.  We  have  been  constrained  to  examine  this  part 
of  our  subject  earlier  because  the  division  of  the  German 
language  into  its  various  dialects  is  chiefly  dependent 
thereon.  Apart  from  this  single  fact  the  changes  which 
the  consonants  have  undergone  are  far  less  important  and 
far  reaching  than  those  through  which  the  vowels  have 
passed.  The  influence  of  this  law  may  be  traced  back  to 
that  early  stage  of  the  language  when  it  had  not  yet 
broken  up  into  its  various  dialects.  Here,  for  instance, 
we  find  that  t  can  stand  only  after  a  spirant.  In  this  way 
we  can  explain  the  relation  Imogen  to  Macht,  of pflegen  to 
Pflicht,  of  tragen  to  Tracht,  of  geben  to  Gift  (originally  the 
same  as  Gabe,  as  may  be  seen  in  Mitgift.  Cf.  for  a  similar 
development  of  meaning  our  word  dose,  from  Socris)  and 
of  treibe  to  Trift.  It  is  true  we  have  klagte,  sagle,  liebte  and 
lobte,  but  this  is  owing  to  the  fact  that  in  former  times 
there  was  a  vowel  between  the  g  and  the  /,  which  was 
dropped  long  after  the  law  had  ceased  to  be  operative.  In 
16 


234  A  History  of  the  German  Language 

the  earliest  Germanic  period,  when  the  language  was  still 
in  a  stage  of  which  no  records  have  come  down  to  us, 
there  was  in  force  a  law  which  did  not  permit  the  use  of  a 
w  at  the  end  of  a  word.  Where  this  letter  happened  to  be 
final  it  was  changed  into  o,  rarely  u.  The  nominative 
milo  (Eng.  meal)  makes  its  genitive  melwes.  The  final 
vowel  was  first  weakened  to  e  and  this  was  in  some  cases 
dropped,  but  medial  w  was  changed  to  b  after  /  and  r.  In 
this  way  we  get  Mehl  alongside  of  Milbe  (older  form  milwe, 
the  insect  that  makes  meal)  and  Melberei,  the  Bavarian 
designation  of  a  flour-store ;  likewise  gat  with  gerben  which 
originally  meant  '  to  make  ready.'  Sometimes  medial  / 
was  transferred  to  the  end  of  a  word,  in  which  cases  we 
have  usually  doublets,  as  fahl  and  falb,  or  gelb  alongside 
of  the  dialectic  gehl.  The  O.  H.  G.  forms  were  falo,  Gen. 
falwes,  gelo  Gen.  gelwes,  the  Eng.  equivalents  being  '  fal- 
low' and  '  yellow.'  In  the  M.  H.  G.  we  meet  with  many 
cases  where  the  consonant  is  different  according  as  it 
stands  in  the  middle  or  at  the  end  of  a  word.  In  the  N. 
H.  G.  the  influence  of  analogy  has  generally  obliterated 
these  differences,  but  some  isolated  instances  remain  which 
show  the  effects  of  the  law.  In  the  first  place,  every  me- 
dial sonant  in  M.  H.  G.  is  changed  into  a  final  surd :  tac 
has  for  its  genitive  tages,  sane  sanges,  liet  liedes,  lop  lobes. 
In  the  N.  H.  G.  the  medial  consonant  is  transferred  to  the 
end,  that  is,  we  have,  by  the  force  of  analogy  Tag,  Lied, 
Lob,  because  the  genitives  have  the  form  above  given. 
When  we  examine  the  endings  -ng  and  -nk  we  find  that  in 
Northern  Germany  the  old  forms  have  to  some  extent  per- 
sisted, which  gives  such  pronunciations  as  Gesank,  though 
written  Gesang,  Gesanges,  ich  gink,  wir  gingen.  In  isolated 
cases  the  final  letter  or  letters  of  a  word  have  taken  the 
place  of  the  medial.  We  have,  for  instance,  the  N.  H.  G. 
Mark  Markes  while  the  M.  H.  G.  is  marc  marges,  and  in 
ausmergeln  the  original  g  is  retained.  Der  Wert,  des  Wertes 
belongs  to  the  same  category  with  wurde  and  was  wert 


A  History  of  the  German  Language  235 

werdes  in  the  M.  H.  G.  In  like  manner  Welt  Welien  points 
to  M.  H.  Q.iventiverlde.  In  those  cases  where  in  the  Low 
German  initial  g  was  pronounced  as  a  spirant  it  was 
changed  into  final  ch,  and  it  is  by  this  law  that  we  can  ex- 
plain such  forms  as  Menge  alongside  of  manch  mancher  for 
the  older  manech  maneger,  M.  H.  G.  manec  maneger. 

In  the  second  place,  medial  h  of  M.  H.  G.  corresponds 
to  ch  final,  as  sehen,  ichsach,  schuoch  schuoches.  But  in  the 
N.  H.  G.  this  h  has  taken  the  place  of  ch  so  that  we  find 
not  only  sehen,  but  also  ich  sah  and  der  Schuh.  The  older 
relation  remains  only  in  hoch  ho  her  am  hbchsten,  and  partly 
in  nah  with  the  superlative  ndchst  and  in  the  adverb  nach. 
Alongside  of  schmahen  we  have  Schmach;  the  M.  H.  G. 
form  of  rauh  was  ruch  which  persists  in  the  modern  Rauch- 
werk,  a  collection  of  furs.  The  old  nominative  is  main- 
tained in  the  proper  name  Schuchardt,  which  in  M.  H.  G. 
was  schuoch  worhte,  that  is, '  shoe-worker.'  There  is  evident 
in  the  M.  H.  G.  as  in  the  N.  H.  G.  a  tendency  to  pro- 
nounce contiguous  consonants  with  the  same  vocal  organs, 
or  rather,  with  the  vocal  organs  in  the  same  position,  in 
order  to  greater  ease  of  utterance.  In  this  way  the  two 
consonants  are  brought  as  near  together  as  possible.  In 
ordinary  conversation  we  do  not  say  anbeiszen  or  einbrechen. 
but  ambeiszen  and  eimbrechen;  but  in  deliberate  discourse 
generally,  and  almost  always  in  spelling,  this  phonetic 
tendency  is  neutralized  by  the  influence  of  analogy  in 
words  whose  prefixes  are  maintained  in  their  integrity,  as, 
for  instance,  anhalten,  anlaufen,  anstoszen,  einatmen,  einlegen, 
eintranken,  etc.  Assimilation,  however,  takes  place  in 
some  cases  where  the  etymological  relation  of  the  prefix 
has  been  forgotten.  For  this  reason  empfangen  and  emp- 
finden  used  for  entfangen  and  entfinden  ;  empfehlen  for  entfehlen, 
Imbisz  for  Inbisz,  Himbeere  for  Hindbeere  (berries  which 
the  hind  likes),  Hamburg  for  Hohenburg,  Schaumberg  for 
Schauenberg,  Wimper  for  Windbraue  (the  brow  that  moves), 
cf.  the  Eng.  wend,  move,  turn  about.  Complete  assimilation 


236  A  History  of  the  German  Language 

has  taken  place  in  Eilanthr  Einland  (the  land  that  is  alone) ; 
in  Grummet  for  Griinmahd  (grass  that  is  mowed  while 
green,  aftermath);  in  Hoffahrt  for  Hochfahrt,  and  in  some 
other  instances.  The  law  of  assimilation  as  we  see  it  ex- 
emplified in  German  is  of  wide-spread  application.  In 
Latin  and  Greek  a  number  of  prepositional  prefixes  are 
accommodated  to  the  initial  sound  of  the  word  with  which 
they  are  joined,  among  them  the  same  prefix  '  in  '  or  ev  we 
have  been  considering  above.  There  are  two  other  phon- 
etic peculiarities  of  the  German  that  are  to  be  noted. 
First,  final  r  was  dropped  before  a  consonant  and  presisted 
before  a  vowel.  We  have  thus  da  but  darin  and  darum; 
wo,  but  worin  and  warum  (dialectic  woruni},  and  alongside 
of  ehe  and  hie  we  find  eher  and  hier.  This  final  r  is  retained 
in  the  English  cognates  there,  where  and  ere,  the  A.-S. 
equivalents  being  aer,  hwaer  and  thaer  respectively.  Sec- 
ond, the  combination  ag  and  eg  are  sometimes  changed  to 
ei.  In  the  M.  H.  G.  occur  both  Magd  and  Maid,  Vogt  and 
Voit,  Hag  and  Hain.  Getreide  is  related  to  tragen  and  sig- 
nifies that  which  is  carried,  clothing,  baggage,  etc.  (M.  H. 
G.  getregede).  Verteidigen  is  derived  from  the  M.  H.  G. 
tagedinc  (Gerichtstag],  its  older  form  being  vertagedingen,  to 
bring  before  a  court  of  justice  or  arbitration.  Reinhard 
and  Reinecke  have  no  connection  with  the  adjective  rein, 
but  the  first  syllable  is  a  shortened  form  of  regin,  an 
old  Germanic  word  which  was  nearly  equivalent  to  Rat. 
Partly  in  the  M.  H.  G.  and  partly  in  the  N.  H.  G.  we  find 
a  tendency  in  »  and  s,  when  at  the  end  of  a  syllable,  to 
generate  a  succeeding  d  which  under  some  circumstances 
is  changed  into  f.  Though  we  have  gelegen  and  offen  we  say 
gelegentlich  and  bffentlich;  entzwei  and  entlang  are  traceable 
to  enzwei  and  enlang,  which  are  simply  in  zwei  and  in  lang, 
or  '  in  two '  or  '  along.'  Jemand  and  Niemand  are  in  full 
je(eiri)Mann,  and  nie(ein)  Mann;  zusammt  is  equal  to  zusa- 
ment  which  in  turn  is  zusamen;  einst,  mittelst  and 
selbsl  represent  an  older  eines,  mittels  and  selbes,  and 


A  History  of  the  German  Language  237 

are  adverbial  genitives  of  ein,  Mittel  and  selb.  Papst 
is  in  M.  H.  G.  babes  from  the  Greek  Trc^-as,  while 
the  dialectic  jez(ie  ze)  corresponds  to  the  H.  G.  jetzt. 
Another  phonetic  change  that  began  in  the  M.  H.  G.  stage 
of  the  language  in  Middle  and  Lower  (or  Northern)  Ger- 
many and  afterward  spread  over  Upper  Germany  is  the 
disappearance  of  an  h  between  two  vowels  which  then 
coalesced.  It  is  owing  to  this  phenomenon  that  h  came  to 
be  used  to  lengthen  the  preceding  vowel.  The  Germans 
write  Stahl,  zehen,  Buhl,  because  M.  H.  G.  exhibits  stahel, 
zehen  and  buhel.  The  change  of  an  older  rs  into  rsch  is 
confined  to  the  H.  G.  The  Low  German  Bars  is  repre- 
sented by  the  South  or  H.  G.  Barsch,  Kng.  barse  or  bass. 
The  Lombard  word  verza,  a  kind  of  cabbage,  reappears  in 
the  modern  German  Wirsching.  A  peculiarity  of  the  L.  G. 
is  the  assimilation  of  h  before  s,  so  that  Ochsen  becomes 
Ossen,  while  Fucks  and* wachsen  are  pronounced  Vosz  and 
wassen.  The  M.  H.  G.  tw  was  sometimes  doubled.  In 
South  Germany  it  appears  as  zw  and  in  Middle  Germany 
as  kw  or  qu.  Quer  reappears  in  Zwerchfell  and  in  uber- 
zwerch,  M.  H.  G.  twerch;  qudngeln  is  related  to 
H.  G.  twingen. 


THE   INFLECTIONS  OF  THE  NEW  HIGH  GERMAN. 
THE  SUBSTANTIVES. 

The  N.  H.  G.  noun  exhibits  great  variety  in  its  inflec- 
tions. This  is  particularly  noticeable  in  the  cases  of  the 
singular  and  in  the  relation  that  exists  between  the  singu- 
lar and  the  plural.  The  latter  is,  on  the  other  hand,  sub- 
ject to  but  little  variation :  either  its  cases  are  all  alike,  or 
the  nominative  corresponds  to  the  genitive  and  accusa- 
tive and  the  dative  takes  an  additional  -n.  In  the  first 
category  belong  those  words  that  form  the  nominative 


238  A  History  of  the  German  Language 

plural  in  -n  or  -en,  such  as  Drachen,  Ochsen,  Bauern,  Wur 
zeln,  etc.;  in  the  second  such  words  as  Nom.  Plur.  die  Tage, 
Dat.  den  Tagen;die  Worter,  Dat.  den  Wortern.  Taking  the 
genitive  singular  and  the  plural  as  bases  we  have,  in  mod- 
ern German,  the  following  types : 

1.  The  genitive  singular  ends  in  -es  or  -s,  the  plural 
ending  in  -e: 

(a).     Der  Tag,  die  Tage, 
(b).     Der  Cast,  die  G'dste, 
(c).     Das  Ding,  die  Dinge ; 

or  in  -er, 
(d.)     Das  Huhn,  die  Hiihner; 

or  in  -n, 
(e.)     Das  Ende,  die  Enden; 

or  is  without  a  characteristic  ending, 
(f ).     Der  Eber,  die  Eber ;  der  Wagen,  die  W'dgen, 
(g).     Der  Kdse,  die  Kdse, 
(h).     Das  Gebirge,  die  Gebirge. 

2.  The  genitive  has  no  inflection,  as  in  all  feminines, 
the  plural  ending  in  -e: 

(a).     Die  Kraft,  die  Kr'dfte ;  die  Kuh,  die  Kuhe ; 

or  in  -«  or  -en, 

(b).     Die  Klage,  die  Klagen;  die  Katze,  die  Katzen, 
(c).     Die  Saat,  die  Saaten ;  die  Insel,  die  Inseln; 

or  is  without  a  characteristic  ending, 
(d).     Die  Mutter,  die  Mutter,  die  Tochter,  die  Tochter. 

3.  All  other  cases  of  the  singular  and  plural  have  an 
additional    -n    as    compared    with    the   nominative   sin- 
gular : 

(a).     Der  Bote,  die  Boten;  der  Knabe,  die  Knaben, 

(b).     Der  Graf,  die  Graf  en;  der  Mensch,  die  Mcnschen. 

These  paradigms  differ  from  those  of  the  M.  H.  G.  in 

two  respects :  first,  the  N.  H.  G.  exhibits  a  greater  variety 

of  forms ;  and,  second,  diverse  forms  have  coalesced  into 

one.      The  types   marked   above    1.   (a),  (b),  (d),  (g),  (h) ; 

2.  (a),  and  3.   (a),  are  the  only  ones  represented  in  the 


A  History  of  the  German  Language  239 

older  language.     It  will  be  seen  that  the  modern  forms 
are  twice  as  numerous  as  the  more  ancient. 

The  types  represented  by  Tag  and  Cast  date  from  the 
M.  H.  G.  stage,  and  we  have  before  stated  the  reason  why 
words  of  one  syllable  and  words  of  more  than  one  are  dif- 
ferently inflected.  But  when  we  go  back  to  the  O.  H.  G. 
stage  we  find  a  divergence  in  the  plurals.  The  words  tac 
or  tag  (day)  and  gast  (guest)  are  thus  declined  in  the 
plural :  Nom.  taga,  gestt, 

Gen.  tago,  gestio, 

Dat.  tagum,  gestim, 

Ace.  taga,  gesti. 

Here  the  forms  of  the  second  word  show  the  reason  of 
the  umlaut  in  the  plural  of  Gast.  In  a  still  older  stage  of 
the  language,  one  of  which  no  monuments  have  come 
down  to  us,  but  about  which  many  conclusions  may  be 
drawn  by  inference,  there  was  also  a  difference  in  the  end- 
ings of  the  singular.  Der  Tag,  den  Tag  were  once  tagos 
and  tagom;  der  Gast,  den  Gast  were  gastis  and  gastim, 
where  we  have  terminations  corresponding  to  the  Latin 
'lupus'  and  'lupum,'  'turns'  and  '  turrim.'  It  may  be 
well  to  call  attention  to  the  fact  that  in  the  above  examples 
only  -s  and  -m  can  properly  be  regarded  as  case-endings. 
What  remains  after  the  removal  of  these  is  the  stem  (or 
root),  and  since  one  of  them  ends  in  -o  and  the  other  in  -i 
they  belong  to  the  class  of  vowel  stems.  They  may  be 
still  further  differentiated  by  being  classed  as  o-stems  and 
i-stems.  It  is  also  to  be  observed  that  the  Latin  '  lupus ' 
was  '  lupos  '  in  an  earlier  stage  of  the  language,  just  as  the 
German  tagum  was  tagom  and  taga  was  tagons.  Moreover, 
the  final  o  of  the  German  stems  was  pronounced  with  a 
close  approximation  to  a ;  indeed,  it  may  have  passed  en- 
tirely into  the  sound  of  this  letter  before  it  dropped  off. 

Now,  since  the  two  types  had  become  alike  in  the  M. 
H.  G.  stage,  except  the  stem  vowel  of  the  plural,  it  is  easy 
to  see  that  the  paradigms  would  sometimes  be  confused. 


240  A  History  of  the  German  Language 

It  has  happened  that  the  M.  H.  G.  umlaut  was  dropped  in 
the  N.  H.  G.,  as  where  lehse  and  liihse  have  become 
Lachse  and  Luchse.  A  great  majority  of  the  o-stems 
have  followed  the  same  course  with  the  word  Cast  G'dste. 
Hof  Hofe  was  in  M.  H.  G.  hof  hove,  and  in  O.  H.  G.  hof 
hova;  the  old  form  without  umlaut  is  latent  in  the  names 
of  places  like  Adelshofen  and  Konigshofen,  which  are  in 
fact  datives  plural.  The  same  is  true  of  the  names  end- 
ing in  -%on}  occurring  so  frequently  in  the  the  vicinity  of 
Lake  Zurich,  such  as  Pj'dffikon,  Sissikon,  Zetzikon,  where 
the  final  syllable  is  a  contraction  of  -ichofen.  Doublets 
like  Schachte  and  Sch'dchte,  Drucke  and  Abdriicke  and  Ein- 
driicke,  are  due  to  the  permanence  of  an  older  form  and 
the  creation  of  a  corresponding  modernized  new  one.  In 
some  instances  the  dialects  exhibit  forms  with  umlaut 
where  the  literary  language  has  retained  the  vowel  with- 
out change,  as,  for  instance,  the  Alemanian  Arm  for 
Arme,  and  Franconian  Dag  for  Tage.  The  type  der  Eber 
die  Eber  is  in  a  sense  a  transformation  of  the  type  repre- 
sented by  Tag  Tage.  The  older  forms  of  the  latter  word 
tac  tages,  Plur.  tage,  represents  the  M.  H.  G.  declension  of 
eber  eberes,  Plur.  die  ebere;  himel,  himeles,  Plur.  die  himele; 
wagen  wagenes,  Plur.  die  wagene.  But  since  in  these 
words  the  final  was  preceded  by  an  unaccented  syllable, 
its  vowel  was  suppressed  in  the  N.  H.  G.  in  accordance 
with  a  phonetic  law  explained  on  p.  232,  and  the  older 
forms  were  shortened  into  Eber  Ebers,  Plur.  die  Eber. 
Since,  now,  the  nominative  and  accusative  plural  had  be- 
come identical  with  the  same  cases  in  the  singular  it  was 
natural  to  make  a  distinction  in  some  way.  This  was 
done  by  introducing  the  umlaut  which  was  a  character- 
istic of  the  i-stems.  Compare  Hafen  Hafen,  Hammer 
Hammer,  Nagel  Nagel,  Ofen  Ofen,  Vater  Vater,  Vogel 
V6gelvi\\h  the  older  havene,  nagele,  etc.  In  this  category 
we  have  likewise  both  old  and  new  forms  still  existing 
alongside  of  each  other,  but  only  among  words  terminat- 


A  History  of  the  German  Language  241 

ing  in  -en,  as  die  Bogen  and  die  Bogen,  die  Laden  and  die 
Laden,  die  Wagen  and  die  Wagen.  In  the  older  language 
the  type  represented  by  the  neuter  das  Ding  die  Dinge 
was  closely  related  to  the  masculine  o-stems  represented 
by  der  Tag  die  Tage.  The  only  points  of  divergence 
were  in  the  nominative  and  accusative  plural  where  one 
had  die  tage  and  the  other  diu  dine — in  other  words,  the 
neuter  lacked  final  e.  A  tendency  to  bring  these  two 
types  into  harmony  begins  to  manifest  itself  in  the  M.  H. 
G.  stage,  and  by  the  time  the  language  has  reached  the 
N.  H.  G.  period  but  very  few  words  remained  unaffected: 
such  are  Lot,  Mass,  Pfund,  Stuck,  and  others  used  in  con- 
nection with  numbers.  This  usage  became  a  type  to 
which  both  masculines  and  feminines  in  the  course  of 
time  conformed.  Accordingly  we  not  only  say  zwanzig 
Pfund,  zwanzig  Stiick,  but  also  zwanzig  Fusz,  zwanzig 
Zoll,  zwanzig  Ohm  (Eng.  aam,  awm)  or  Saum  and  Last. 
As  we  have  shown  above,  some  neuters  form  their  plurals 
in  -er :  the  M.  H.  G.  of  huon  is  hiiener.  In  the  older  lan- 
guage this  type  embraced  a  smaller  number  of  examples 
than  now  come  under  it.  Many  of  its  modern  representa- 
tives belonged  to  other  categories  in  the  O.  H.  G.,  or  at 
least  had  the  alternate  ending  without  -er;  for  example, 
Haupt  had  the  M.  H.  G.  plural  diu  houbet  only,  but  the 
modern  form  is  Hdupter.  The  older  form  survives  in 
proper  names,  such  as  Berghaupten  and  Roshaupten,  both 
datives  plural.  The  same  statement  applies  to  Feld,  Plur. 
die  Felder,  but  in  the  M.  H.  G.  diu  velt  is  represented  by 
such  modern  names  as  Degerfelden  and  Rheinfelden.  Die 
Hduser  corresponds  to  M.  H  G.  diu  hiuser  and  diu  hus. 
It  is  represented  in  names  of  places  like  Rheinhausen, 
Schaffhausen,  Sangershausen,  etc.  An  occasional  word 
has  retained  a  double  plural  to  the  present  day,  but  in 
every  case  it  is  evident  that  the  ending  -er  is  regarded  as 
preferable ;  the  other  is  either  archaic  or  belongs  to  the 
elevated  style.  Compare,  e.  g.  Bande  and  Bander,  Dmge 


242  A  History  of  the  German  Language 

and  Dinger,  Lande  and  Lander,  Worte  and  Worier.  A 
few  masculines  have  taken  the  termination  -er  in  the 
plural  of  the  N.  H.  G.  Examples  are  der  Gets  I  die 
Geister,  der  Leib  die  Letber,  der  Wald  die  Walder,  of 
which  we  have  the  archaic  form  in  Unterwalden,  i.  e., 
'unter  den  Waldern.'  Some  additional  plurals  similar  in 
form  are  found  in  several  dialects.  The  primitive  Ger- 
manic neuter  in  the  singular  was  represented  by  thingom 
or  wordom,  which  latter  corresponds  to  Latin  'verbum,' 
older  'verbom'  for  verbhom.  In  this  case  the  true  termi- 
nation is  -m,  and  as  it  is  preceded  by  -o-  these  words  must 
be  classed  among  the  o-stems.  Just  as  the  Latin  exhibits 
words  of  which '  odium  '  and '  exordium  '  are  a  type,  so  there 
are  in  German  words  in  which  the  final  o  of  the  stern  was 
preceded  by  an  i.  This  type  is  represented  above  by  das 
Gebirge  die  Gebirge,  which  has  remained  unchanged  from 
the  M.  H.  G.  stage,  the  O.  H.  G.  being  daz  gabirgi  diu 
gabirgi,  and  before  the  loss  of  the  final  letter  gabirgiom- 
gabirgio.  It  is  thus,  evidently,  an  io-stem.  In  the  N.  H. 
G.  but  few  nouns  belong  to  this  class,  and  all  are  com- 
posites with  the  prefix  ge-,  such  as  Gefilde,  Gebilde,  Gefiige, 
Gewolbe.  As  they  are  all  to  a  greater  or  less  extent  col- 
lective nouns,  it  was  of  small  importance  to  distinguish 
the  singular  from  the  plural.  The  two  words,  Gelage, 
older  form  gelac,  and  Gestade,  older  form  gestat,  have  been 
drawn  into  this  class  by  the  force  of  analogy,  in  spite  of 
the  fact  that  they  belong  to  the  a-stems.  The  absence  of 
the  umlaut  is  sufficient  evidence  that  there  was  never  an  i 
in  the  final  syllable. 

A  large  number  of  words  belonging  to  this  class  have 
been  confounded  with  that  represented,  by  Ding  since  the 
two  paradigms  correspond  externally  except  in  the  nomi- 
native and  accusative  singular.  In  the  older  N.  H.  G.  a 
considerable  number  of  the  original  forms  in  -e  are  retain- 
ed and  are  still  occasionally  used.  We  find  both  Gliick 
and  Glucke,  Gemiite  and  Gemiit,  Kreuze  and  Krenz,  Stiicke 


A  History  of  the  German  Language  243 

and  Stuck.  The  plural  of  Gemut  follows  the  type  represent- 
ed by  Hiihner  and  is  Gemiiter;  the  dialectic  plural  Stilcker 
is  common.  The  latter  plural  is  not  used  in  the  familiar 
phrase  "etn  Stiicker  seeks'1'1  in  the  sense  of  "etwa  seeks" 
but  is  a  mutilated  contraction  of  "ein  Stuck  oder  seeks" 
In  the  earlier  stages  of  the  language  there  were  a  few  mas- 
culine stems  ending  in  -io,  but  of  these  only  a  single  one 
still  exists  in  the  modern  German,  viz.,  der  Kase  die  Kdse 
(A.-S.  cese,  Eng.  cheese).  It  is,  however,  not  originally  a 
Germanic  word,  but  is  a  modification  of  the  Latin  '  caseus.' 
All  the  rest  have  taken  their  places  under  other  types.  A 
different  kind  of  stems  from  those  hitherto  considered  is 
represented  by  type  3.  (a)  der  Bote  die  Boten,  above.  The 
M.  H.  G.  inflection  corresponds  exactly  with  the  N.  H.  G- 
which  is  Sing.  Plur.  The  O.  H.  G.  was  Sing.  Plur. 
Nom.  Bote  Boten  bofo  bolun 

Gen.   Boten    Boten  bo  tin     botono 

Dat.    Boten    Boten  botin     botun 

Ace.    Boten    Boten  botun    botun. 

But  before  the  force  of  the  phonetic  law  had  wrought 
comparative  uniformity  in  the  final  syllables  the  paradigm 
was  probably  as  follows  : 

Sing.  Nom.  boto,  Gen.  botonis,  Dat.  botoni;  Plur.  Nom. 
botones,  Ace.  botonas;  which  corresponds  pretty  closely  to 
the  inflection  of  homo,  hominis,  homini,  etc.,  in  Latin.  If 
we  remove  the  terminations  -is,  -i,  etc.,  there  remains  a 
series  of  stems  ending  in  the  consonant  -n,  which  gives  a 
paradigm  closely  akin  to  our  number  3,  above.  These 
n-stems  are  often  spoken  of  by  grammarians  as  representing 
the  weak  declension  as  distinguished  from  those  ending 
with  a  vowel  which  is  called  strong.  In  the  N.  H.  G.  the 
type  represented  by  Bote  split  into  two  general  classes,  the 
final  e  of  the  nominative  falling  off  in  some  cases.  This 
took  place  in  accordance  with  a  phonetic  law  already  set 
forth,  after  an  unaccented  syllable,  in  such  M.  H.  G.  words 
as  schultheisze,  steinmetze,  truhsaeze  which  became  in  N. 


244  A  History  of  the  German  Language 

H.  G.  Schultheisz,  Steinmetz,  Truchsesz.  Words  employed 
as  titles  of  honor  were  often  used  before  the  proper  name 
of  persons  bearing  them  and,  therefore,  but  slightly  ac- 
cented. Thus  it  came  about  that  final  e  was  generally 
dropped  even  when  it  came  after  an  accented  syllable- 
Fiirst,  Graf,  Herr  were  in  M.  H.  G.  fiirste,  grave,  herre; 
whence  arose  our  type  3.  (b).  The  number  of  nouns  be- 
longing to  this  class  is  considerably  smaller  than  in  the 
older  language.  The  type  represented  by  Graf  formerly 
corresponded  with  those  represented  by  Tag  and  Gast; 
which  resulted  in  confounding  the  two  and  the  vowel 
stems  taking  the  place  of  the  consonant  stems  in  the  para- 
digms. In  some  cases  double  forms  are  equally  correct, 
and  we  may  say  des  Bauer s  or  des  Bauern,  Plur.  die  Bauern; 
des  Nachbars  or  des  Nachbarn,  Plur.  die  Nachbarn.  We 
find  des  Marzes,  dem  Marz,  alongside  of  the  archaic  des 
Marzen,  im  Marzen,  the  latter  form  also  appearing  in  such 
compounds  as  Marzenbier,  Marzenschnee,  Marzenstaub. 
Some  words  have,  however,  passed  completely  from  one 
class  to  the  other,  as  der  Herzog  des  Herzogs,  Plur.  die 
Herzoge;  der  Mond  des  Afondes,  Plur.  die  Monde;  der 
Schwan  des  Schwans,  Plur.  die  Schwdne.  The  old  geni- 
tives corresponding  to  the  nominatives  herzoge,  mane  and 
swane  may  be  still  seen  in  the  compounds  Herzogenbuch- 
see,  Herzogenstand,  Mondenschein,  Schwanenhals.  To  the 
type  represented  by  Wagtn  that  represented  by  Boten  cor- 
responds in  all  its  parts  except  the  nominative  and  geni- 
tive singular.  Compare 

Nom.       Gen.       Dat.      Ace. 
Sing.    Wagen  Wagens  Wagen  Wagen  Plur.  Wagen 

with  Sing.    Bote      Boten      Boten    Boten     Plur.  Boten. 

This  general  similarity  led  to  a  confusion  of  the  two 
types  and  they  were  made  alike  in  all  the  cases,  the  nomi- 
native in  -e  receiving  an  additional  -«,  and  the  genitive  in 
-en  an  additional  -s.  Consequently,  many  words  that 
originally  belonged  to  class  3.  (a)  (Bote)  passed  into  the 


A  History  of  the  German  Language  245 

class  represented  by  Wagen.  Der  Balken,  der  Bogen,  der 
Braten,  der  Brunnen,  der  Daumen,  der  Garten,  were  in  M. 
H.  G.  balke  des  balken^  boge  des  bogen,  brate,  brunne,  dume 
^(thumb),  garte.  In  many  compounds  the  old  forms  have, 
however,  been  conserved  :  IVildbret  (M.  H.  G.  wildbrat}  is 
simply  Wildbraten;  the  South  German  Winger t  (M.  H.G. 
wingarte)  means  Weingarten,  and  in  Schonbrunn  (a  royal 
villa  near  Vienna)  we  have  an  older  form  of  Brunnen. 
Three  modern  doublets  Franken  Frank,  Lumpen  Lump, 
Tropfen  Tropfe  are  peculiar  for  the  reason  that  they  have 
arisen  from  the  M.  H.  G.  forms  franke,  lumpe  and  tropfe. 
The  three  former  have  the  characteristic  in  common  that 
they  designate  things  while  the  latter  are  applied  to  living 
beings.  We  have  thus  three  words  signifying  respectively 
a  coin  (franc),  a  rag,  and  a  drop  having  the  same  origin 
with  words  signifying  a  Frank,  a  good-for-nothing  fellow, 
and  a  poor  devil  (as  in  armer  Tropf}.  The  peculiar  fact 
here  noted  is  of  pretty  wide  application.  In  all  cases  where 
the  modern  nominative  ends  with  -en  it  relates  to  things, 
while,  on  the  other  hand,  almost  all  words  where  this  case 
without  -n  persists  they  designate  persons  or  animals 
without  reason  such  as  Affe,  Ahne,  Bote,  Buhle,  Surge, 
Jude,  Fink  or  Finke,  Falke,  Hase,  etc.  A  probable  expla- 
nation of  this  fact  is  that  one  class  has  been  used  as  a  sub- 
ject-nominative much  oftener  than  the  other ;  and  the 
more  frequently  a  word  is  used  the  more  it  is  exposed  to 
mutilation  through  the  influence  of  analogy.  As  a  com- 
pensation for  the  losses  which  type  3,  has  sustained  in 
favor  of  type  1.  (f ),  it  has  also  received  various  increments. 
Many  words  represented  by  the  types  Tag  and  Gast  have, 
besides  their  original  plurals  in  -e,  another  plural  like  the 
type  represented  by  Graf  Grafen.  To  this  class  belong 
die  Maste  die  Masten,  die  Sinne  die  Sinnen,  die  Sliefel  die 
Stiefeln,  and  alongside  of  Manner,  which  forms  its  plural 
like  das  Wort  die  Worte,  we  find  die  Mannen.  Der  Hirte 
belonged  originally  to  the  type  represented  by  Kdse — its 


246  A  History  of  the  German  Language 

form  was  hirti.  Many  words  in  -o,  or  -io  have  transiently 
belonged  to  type  3,  and  subsequently  passed  into  the  type 
represented  by  Eber  or  Wagen.  Der  Riicken  is  in  M.  H. 
G.  der  riicke  des  ruckes,  which  is  the  type  represented  by 
Kdse ;  the  next  step  was  der  Riicke  des  Riicken,  then  the 
present  form.  The  original  is  preserved  in  Hundsruck  (a 
plateau  in  western  Germany)  and  also  in  hmterriicks, 
zuriick,  archaic  zurucke.  In  like  manner  Nutzen  comes 
from  the  M.  H.  G.  der  nutz  des  nutzes,  the  old  inflection 
being  preserved  in  Eigennutz,  sich  zu  Nutze  machen,  zii 
Nutz  und  Frommen  (for  use  and  advantage).  The  conso- 
nant stems  were  not  originally  confined  to  masculine 
nouns  but  were  spread  over  the  neuter  and  feminine  n- 
stems  as  well.  To  the  first  belonged,  in  the  M.  H.  G., 
das  herze,  das  ore,  das  ouge,  the  last  of  which  was  declined, 
in  the  four  cases  of  the  singular,  das  ouge,  des  ougen,  dem 
ougen,  das  ouge,  Nom.  Plur.  diu  ougen,  Dat.  den  ougen. 
This  paradigm  corresponded  in  part  with  that  of  Gebirge 
and  ran  thus,  e.  g.  with  such  words  as  Ende,  Erbe  or 
Hemde :  daz  ende,  des  endes,  dem  ende,  daz  ende,  Plur.  dtii 
ende,  Dat  den  enden.  The  result  was  that  a  number  of  in- 
flections grew  up  like  the  modern  das  Auge  des  Auges, 
Plur.  die  Augen;das  Ende,  des  Endes,  Plur.  Dat.  den  Enden. 
Herz  has  retained  the  old  dative  form,  but  makes  its  geni- 
tive like  Wagen. 

We  come  next  to  the  consideration  of  the  feminine  con- 
sonant stems.  The  word  die  Zunge  ( tongue )  was  declined 
in  M.  H.  G.  with  final  -en  in  all  cases  except  the  nomina- 
tive singular,  but  in  O.  H.  G.  it  ran  as  follows: 

Nom.       Gen.        Dat.         Ace. 
Sing,     zunga       zungun     zungun     zungun 
Plur.     zungun     zungono    zungon     zungun 

But  even  here  the  real  case-endings  have  nearly  all 
dropped  off  and  -un  represents  the  stem-ending.  Along- 
side of  this  there  was  another  feminine,  as  follows : 


A  History  of  the  German  Language  247 

Nom.       Gen.        Dat.  Ace. 

Sing,    klaga  '    klagd       klagu  klaga 

Plur.     klaga        klagono    klagon  (ni)  klaga 

Here,  as  may  be  easily  seen,  we  are  dealing  with  a  vowel 
stem,  and  it  will  be  noticed  that  it  corresponded  to  the 
Latin  mensa  and  the  Greek  \u>pa.  ^n  the  M.  H.  G.  these 
two  paradigms  corresponded  in  several  points,  as  may  be 
readily  seen  on  placing  them  side  by  side : 

Nom.  Gen.  Dat.  Ace. 
Sing,  zunge  zungen  zungen  zungen 
Sing,  klage  klage  klage  klage 
Plur.  zungen  zungen  zungen  zungen 
Plur.  klage  klagen  klagen  klage ;  whence  re- 
sulted the  modern  declension  of  Klage  Klagen.  That  the 
forms  of  Klage  have  persisted  in  the  singular  but  not 
those  of  Zunge  is  easily  understood  when  we  notice  that 
they  exhibited  a  difference  between  the  genitive  and  da- 
tive and  the  corresponding  forms  of  the  plural.  On  the 
other  hand,  the  forms  of  klage  in  the  singular  were 
yielded  in  favor  of  zungen  because  klage  was  the  form  of 
the  nominative  and  accusative  in  the  singular.  Remnants 
of  the  consonant  declension  of  the  feminine  are  still  fre- 
quently met  with,  as  "unser  lieben  Frauen^  "Festge- 
mauert  in  der  Erden"  (Schiller's  Song  of  the  Bell),  Er- 
denleben,  Erdensohn,  Gassenbube,  Harfenton,  Hollenthal, 
Muhlenbach,  Sonnenlicht.  In  view  of  the  fact  that  two 
older  types  have  united  in  the  one  represented  by  Klage 
it  has  become  very  copious.  But  it  has  been  still  further  en- 
larged from  various  other  sources.  One  has  been  those  words 
whose  nominative  likewise  ended  in  e.  This  type  is  rep- 
resented in  our  list  by  Gebirge.  Old  forms  were  daz  grilize, 
das  wette,  das  nppe.  We  may  still  hear  the  phrase,  "das 
alte  Ripp"  (the  old  rip),  to  designate  a  contentious  wo- 
man. Another  has  been  the  masculine  stems  in  n  belong- 
ing to  the  type  Bote ;  the  M.  H.  G.  was  der  grille,  der 


248  A  History  of  the  German  Language 

imbe  (die  Imme),  der  slange,  etc.  In  many  words  the 
South  German  spoken  language  still  retains  the  mascu- 
line gender  where  the  literary  language  together  with  the 
Central  and  North  German  dialects  have  yielded  to  the 
force  of  analogy  and  changed  to  the  feminine.  Hence 
have  arisen  the  doublets  in  gender  der  Backen  and  die 
Backe,  der  Schneck  and  die  Schnecke,  der  Trauben  and  die 
Traube,  and  der  Zacken  and  die  Zacke,  der  Butter  and  die 
Butter,  der  Schurz  and  die  Schiirze,  together  with  many 
others.  Even  in  the  literary  language  we  find  der 
Schnupfen  alongside  of  die  (Stern}  schnuppe,  the  latter  a 
survival  from  the  Low  German  :  it  being  assumed  that  the 
stars  snuff  themselves.  But  further,  the  masculine 
vowel-stems  also  end  in  e ;  die  Tage  is  exactly  parallel 
with  die  Klage.  Such  plurals  were  accordingly  treated 
like  the  singular  of  the  feminine  and  a  new  plural  in  -n 
created :  to  take  the  place  of  the  M.  H.  G.  der  slaf  we 
now  find  die  Schldfe,  the  old  form  being  not  yet  wholly 
obsolete.  Die  Socke  was  in  M.  H.  G.  der  soc,  in  South 
Germany,  der  Socken;  die  Tilcke  is  the  M.  H.  G.  der  tuc, 
and  the  South  Germans  still  say,  "einem  einen  Tuck  anthun" 
"sich  einen  Tuck  thun"  (to  injure  another  or  one's  self). 
Die  Woge  is  the  M.  H.  G.  der  wdc.  In  addition  to  those 
words  that  have  been  transferred  from  one  gender  and 
from  one  declension  to  another  because  of  their  similarity 
in  the  nominative  singular,  there  are  others  where  a  trans- 
fer was  brought  about  by  the  likeness  of  the  plurals,  die 
Wagen,  e.  g.,  corresponding  exactly  to  die  Klagen.  The 
modern  die  Waffe  (weapon)  was  in  the  M.  H.  G.  daz  wafen; 
"em  gute  Wehr  und  Waff  en"  occurs  in  Luther's  famous 
hymn,  and  das  Wappen  (coat-of-arms)  is  a  survival  of  the 
Low  German. 

It  yet  remains  to  consider  the  types  2.  (a)  and  (c),  Kraft 
Kr'dfte  and  Saat  Saaten.  The  former  only  is  primitive  and 
its  modern  inflection  is  found  in  the  M.  H.  G.  The  plural 
in  the  O.  H.  G.  is  declined  thus :  krefti,  kreftio,  kreftin, 


A  History  of  the  German  Language  249 

krefti.  In  the  M.  H.  G.  there  are  alternate  forms  of  the 
genitive  and  dative  singular,  viz.,  der  kraft  and  der  krefte, 
but  only  one  nominative,  kraft.  In  the  O.  H.  G.  krefti  is 
-the  sole  form.  How,  then,  are  we  to  explain  the  M.  H.  G.? 
The  Germanic  originally  possessed  not  only  consonant 
stems  ending  in  n,  but  also  in  other  letters.  Among  the 
most  common  of  these  was  the  word  Nacht.  In  the  O.  H. 
G.  it  inflected  as  follows :  Sing,  naht,  naht,  naht,  naht,  all 
the  cases  being  alike ;  Plur.  naht,  nahto,  nahtun,  naht, 
where  only  the  genitive  and  dative  vary  from  the  singular 
form.  Compare  with  this  the  four  cases  of  the  Latin  nox, 
noct-is,  noct-i,  noct-em.  Diu  naht,  Gen.  der  naht  came  to 
be  taken  as  patterns  for  the  genitive  and  dative  of  diu 
kraft,  der  kraft  in  the  singular ;  and,  conversely,  a  plural, 
die  Niichte,  came  into  use  after  the  model  of  die  krefte. 
Eventually  der  kraft  was  employed  to  the  exclusion  of  der 
krefte,  doubtless  because  the  latter  was  exactly  like  the 
plural  and  could  not  easily  be  distinguished  from  it  when 
unaccompanied  by  the  article ;  but  even  with  the  article 
this  was  not  possible  in  the  genitive  of  both  numbers. 
Remnants  of  the  e-forms  are  seen  in  Br'dutigam  for  Br'du- 
tegam  ( bride-g(r)oom,  man  of  the  bride),  M.  H.  G.  der 
bnute ;  in  Biirgemeister  the  archaic  form  of  Bur  germeis- 
ter, and  in  Magdesprung.  Behende  is  the  modern  form  of 
M.  H.  G.  bi  hende,  at  hand,  although  Hand  did  not  origi- 
nally belong  to  the  i-stems,  as  may  be  seen  in  the  datives 
plural  without  the  umlaut,  zu  Handen,  von  Handen  gehen, 
abhanden  kommen,  vorhanden  (vor  den  Handen},  but  was 
an  u-stem.  That  Nacht  was  not  originally  an  i-stem  may 
be  seen  in  the  current  Weihnachten,  zu  den  wihen  nahten 
(in  the  holy  nights).  The  type  Kraft  exhibits  points  of 
contact  with  that  of  Klage.  In  the  case  of  some  words 
belonging  to  the  latter,  final  e  had  dropped  off.  For  ex- 
ample, Frau  Frauen  corresponded  in  the  singular  with 
words  like  Kraft,  and  plurals  were  formed  in  -en,  as 
Bur  gen  M.  H.  G.  die  biirge,  Fahrten  M.  H.  G.  die  verte, 

17 


250  A  History  of  the  German  Language 

Thaten  M.  H.  G.  die  taete.  But  plurals  in  -en  might 
arise  from  two  forms  of  the  singular,  one  with  e  and  the 
other  without  e.  In  consequence  of  this,  the  type  Kraft, 
Burg  was  sometimes  confounded  with  that  of  Klage. 
E.  g.,  the  modern  Blute  was  bluot  in  the  M.  H.  G.,  and 
Etche,  Leiche,  Stute  were  respectively  etch,  tick,  stuot. 

The  type  2.  (d)  is  solitary,  for  to  it  belong  only  the 
two  words  above  given.  These  were  originally  consonant 
stems  and  had  the  same  endings  as  Bote ;  that  is,  they 
were  without  umlaut.  By  a  false  analogy  they  were 
classed  with  words  like  Acker  Aecker,  Bruder  Bruder,  etc. 


THE  PRONOUN. 


Pronouns  differ  from  nouns  not  only  in  their  endings 
but  also  in  several  other  respects.  In  the  primitive  Indo- 
European  language  there  were  three  numbers,  the  singu- 
lar, the  dual,  and  the  plural.  The  ancient  Greek  affords 
the  most  familiar  instance  of  the  frequent  use  of  the  dual 
number.  In  the  general  Germanic  the  dual  forms  of  the 
nouns  early  became  extinct ;  but  they  were  preserved  in 
the  pronouns  after  this  had  split  up  into  several  dialects. 
'  We  two '  is  wit,  '  ye  two '  git,  in  the  Old-Saxon  poem 
called  the  Heliand  (composed  probably  in  the  ninth  cen- 
tury). The  corresponding  words  in  the  O.  H.  G.  were 
probably  wiz,  iz.  In  the  Old-Saxon,  ( to  us  two '  is  unk 
and  '  to  you  two,'  ink,  the  Dat.  and  Ace.  being  alike.  The 
dual  of  the  second  person  plural  is  still  in  use  in  the 
modern  Bavarian  and  has  even  displaced  the  regular 
plural,  es  or  os  taking  the  place  of  ihr  and  enk  that  of 
euch.  The  German  pronoun  like  the  English,  the  Greek 
and  the  Latin,  forms  the  singular  and  the  plural  in  great 
measure  from  different  stems.  Compare  meiner,  mir  (my, 
me)  with  wir,  unser  (we,  our),  and  deiner,  dir  (thy,  thee) 
with  ir  (ihr],  euer  (you,  your).  But  the  language  in  the 
course  of  its  development  tended  more  and  more  to 
obliterate  these  distinctions.  We  accordingly  find  in 


A  History  of  the  German  Language  251 

widely  divergent  dialects  mir  and  mer  alongside  of  wir, 
as  likewise  dir  and  der  alongside  of  ihr.  Here  again  we 
see  the  influence  of  analogy  :  the  initial  sounds  vimeiner, 
mir,  mich  and  diener,  dir,  dich  were  transferred  to  the 
plural  number.  In  some  cases  the  final  syllables  are  made 
alike.  Meiner,  deiner  are  formed,  at  least  in  part,  after 
the  pattern  of  unser,  euer,  the  older  words  being  mein,  dein. 
These,  though  archaic,  are  by  no  means  obsolete.  After 
mein  and  dein  had  assumed  the  additional  syllable,  sein 
followed  suit  and  became  seiner.  The  German  pronoun 
exhibits  the  somewhat  remarkable  phenomenon  of  having 
in  part  obliterated  the  distinction  between  the  dative  and 
the  accusative.  In  English,  on  the  other  hand,  the  dative 
has  displaced  the  accusative  entirely.  As  long  ago  as  its 
earliest  stages  the  Low  German  had  but  a  single  form  each 
for  the  dative  and  accusative  plural  of  the  two  persons : 
uns  representing  both  nobis  and  nos,  while  iu  is  either 
vobis  or  vos.  The  dative  singular  is  mi  and  thi,  corre- 
sponding to  the  current  mir  and  dir,  where  the  final  r  is  a 
development  of  s  which  dropped  off  in  Low  German; 
this  branch  of  the  Teutonic  being  in  nearly  all  cases 
nearer  the  English  than  the  German  proper.  The  accu- 
sative was  probably  mik  and  thik.  This  distinction  was 
obliterated  very  early :  in  some  dialects  of  the  L.  G.  mi 
and  thi,  in  others  mik  and  thik  are  employed  for  both  cases, 
these  following  the  analogy  of  the  plural  and  becoming 
alike.  Owing  to  the  habit  of  neglecting  to  make  a  dis- 
tinction between  the  two  cases  it  is  easy  to  understand 
why  the  native  Low  German  constantly  fails  to  distinguish 
between  mir  and  mich,  dir  and  dich  when  he  uses  a  H.  G. 
dialect.  The  influence  of  analogy  extended  yet  farther. 
After  it  had  become  a  matter  of  usage  to  make  no  distinc- 
tion between  the  first  and  second  person,  it  was  natural  to 
follow  the  same  course  with  the  third,  and  accordingly  we 
find  the  dative  ihm,  em  used  for  the  accusative  ihn.  While 
in  the  M.  H.  G.  we  still  have  the  dative  and  accusative 


252  A  History  of  the  German  Language 

uns,  but  dative  in,  accusative  -inch,  we  find  that  in  the 
N.  H.  G.  the  accusative  euch  has  completely  displaced  the 
dative.  Owing  to  this  coalescence  of  the  two  cases  the 
illiterate  frequently  make  a  curious  blunder  in  the  lan- 
guage of  civility :  as  Sie  has  no  existence  in  any  dialect 
they  are  unable  to  distinguish  between  the  dative  and  the 
accusative  of  the  third  person.  We,  accordingly,  hear 
such  expressions  as,  "ich  habe  Ihnen  (Sie)  ja  gar  nicht 
erkanntj'  and  "  Se  (Ihnen}  kann  dat  goa  (gar)  nicht  feh- 
len."  But  even  the  modern  sich  was  originally  an  accu- 
sative like  mich  and  dich,  the  older  language  using  in  its 
stead  the  regular  personal  pronoun.  I/uther  says,  "unser 
keiner  lebt  ihm  selber,  unser  keiner  stirbt  ihm  setter"  where 
in  modern  German  we  should  use  sich  selber  or  sich  selbst 
for  ihm  selber.  It  may  be  remarked  that  in  general  the 
distinction  between  the  reflexive  and  the  non-reflexive 
pronoun  is  not  carefully  observed.  The  Germans  say 
gedenke  sein,  geniesze  sein,  where  the  older  language  pos- 
sessed a  genitive  es  for  the  nominatives  er  and  es  (M.  H. 
G.  ez).  Traces  of  this  fact  are  still  found  in  certain 
stereotyped  formulas  like  "  ich  bin  es  satt,  ich  bin  es  su- 
frieden,"  for,  as  is  well  known,  the  verb  sein  can  not  take 
an  accusative  after  it. 

It  remains  yet  to  consider  a  few  peculiar  isolated  forms 
of  the  pronpun.  Alongside  of  ihr  the  N.  H.  G.  exhibits 
the  archaic  ihro,  which  corresponds  exactly  with  the  O. 
H.  G.  iro.  It  is  used  almost  exclusively  in  addressing 
royal  personages  and  other  members  of  the  nobility. 
That  the  modern  German  has  two  words  where  the  older 
language  had  but  one  is  doubtless  due  to  the  difference  in 
accentuation  in  the  latter :  iro  naturally  becomes  ir  and 
iro  remained  unchanged.  The  same  remark  holds  good 
as  to  the  relation  of  dero  to  der.  As  to  the  pronouns  er, 
der  and  wer,  we  generally  find  two  forms  in  current  usage, 
dessen  and  des,  deren  and  der,  denen  and  den.  The  shorter 
forms  are  the  only  ones  existing  in  the  M.  H.  G.  as  may 


A  History  of  the  German  Language  253 

be  seen  in  deshalb,  deswegen,  "  Wes  Brod  ich  ess,  des  Lied 
ich  sing."  The  possessive  pronoun  ihr  was  originally  a 
variant  of  the  personal  pronoun — the  genitive  singular  of 
the  feminine,  or  the  genitive  plural  of  all  genders.  It  ac- 
cordingly forms  a  doublet  with  the  later  ihrer  and  corre- 
sponds to  the  French  d'elle,  d'eux,  d'elles  (of  her,  of 
them).  The  younger  forms  probably  developed  under 
the  influence  of  the  dissyllabic  pronouns  like  dieser,jener, 
and  similar  adjectives  may  have  aided  their  growth. 

THE  ABJECTIVE. 

When  we  come  to  consider  the  adjectives  we  find  that 
some  are  inflected  and  some  entirely  without  endings. 
Of  the  latter  such  as  gut,  ode,  and  their  like,  correspond 
exactly  to  the  nominatives  and  accusatives  of  nouns  hav- 
ing vowel  stems :  compare  Tag,  Kdse,  etc.  In  both  cases 
the  primitive  ending  dropped  off,  the  German  lang  having 
once  been  precisely  equivalent  to  the  Latin  '  longus.'  The 
inflected  adjectives  have,  in  their  turn,  a  two-fold  set  of 
endings  —  one  used  with  the  definite  article,  the  other 
without.  The  former,  der  gute,  des  guten,  dent  guten,  den 
guten,  show  consonant  stems.  The  masculine,  in  this 
case,  is  exactly  like  the  substantive  declension  represented 
by  the  type  Bote,  Boten,  above.  In  the  feminine  and 
neuter  of  the  adjective  the  O.  G.  types  of  the  consonant 
declension  are  preserved,  which  have  been  lost  in  the  M 
H.  G.  substantive.  The  modern  die  gute,  der  guten,  are 
exactly  like  M.  H.  G.  die  zunge,  der  zungen  ;  and  das  gute, 
des  guten,  like  M.  H.  G.  das  ouge,  des  ougen.  Thus  far 
there  is,  accordingly,  no  radical  difference  between  the  ad- 
jective and  the  substantive.  This  likewise  represents  the 
primitive  relation  of  these  two  parts  of  speech  to  each 
other  in  the  original  Indo-European,  as  may  be  seen  by 
an  examination  of  the  L/atin  and  Greek.  But  the  Ger- 
man adds  inflectional  terminations  when  the  adjective  is 
not  preceded  by  a  word  that  clearly  marks  the  case,  as 


254 


A  History  of  the  German  Language 


guter  Wein,  gutes  Weines,  gutem  Weine,  guten  Wein,  etc.; 
but  der  gute  Wein,  des  guten  Weines,  dem  guten  Weme, 
den  guten  Wein. 

The  former  mode  of  inflection  grew  out  of  the  tendency 
to  make  it  conform  to  that  of  pronouns  of  the  third  per- 
son singular.  Compare,  e.  g.,  the  O.  H.  G.  paradigms  of 
the  two  classes  of  words': 


Nom. 
Sing,    der 
Plur.     die 

Sing,     diu 
Plur.     dio(d) 


Sing,    daz 
Plur.     diu 


Sing,  guoter 

Plur.  guote 

Sing,  guotiu 

Plur.  guoto 


Sing,    guotaz 
Plur.    guotiu 


MASCULINE. 

Gen.  Dat. 

des 

dero 

FEMININE. 

dera  deru 

dero  dem 

NEUTER. 

des  demu 

dero  dem 

MASCULINE. 

guotes          guotemu       guotan(en) 
guotero         guotem         guote 


Ace. 

den 
die  (diu} 

die  (did) 
die  (did] 

daz 
diu 


FEMININE. 


guotera 
guotero 


guoteru 
guotem 


guota 
guoto 


NEUTER. 


guotes          guotemu       guotaz 
guotero         guotem         guotiu 


There  are  but  few  points  of  divergence  except  the 
weakening  of  all  unaccented  vowels  to  e,  and  the  changes 
which  the  pronoun  has  undergone  since  the  O.  H.  G. 
period  have  been  steadily  followed  by  similar  changes  in 
the  adjective.  The  nominative  of  the  Fern.  Sing,  diu 
guotin^  which  would  regularly  have  become  den  guten  in 


A  History  of  the  German  Language  255 

accordance  with  German  phonetic  laws,  has  been  displaced 
by  the  Ace.  die  gute ;  and  in  like  manner  the  Plur.  of  the 
neuter  diu  guotiu  has  been  superseded  by  the  correspond- 
ing form  of  the  Mas.  and  Fern,  die  gute. 

Jacob  Grimm  (born  1785),  who  published  the  first 
scientific  grammar  of  the  Germanic  languages,  designated 
the  pronominal  declension  of  the  adjective  as  u  strong ;" 
the  other,  as  also  that  of  the  substantive,  he  called 
"  weak."  His  reasons  were  purely  fanciful,  but  the  terms 
have  been  retained  by  all  subsequent  grammarians  on  ac- 
count of  their  brevity  and  convenience. 

THE  VERB. 

In  German,  as  in  English,  verbs  are  usually  divided  into 
two  classes  distinguished  from  each  other  by  their  mode 
of  forming  the  preterit  (or  imperfect)  tense.  The  one  class 
makes  the  preterit  by  means  of  final  -te,  the  other  by  a 
change  in  the  vowel  or  vowels  of  the  radical  syllable, — in 
other  words  by  means  of  vowel-gradation.  For  example, 
ich  lehre,  ich  lehrte,  corresponding  in  the  main  to  the  Eng- 
lish '  I  learn,'  CI  learned,'  may  be  compared  with  ich  gebe, 
ich  gab  and  '  I  give,' '  I  gave.'  The  first  class  which  requires 
external  aid  in  order  to  express  the  past  has  been  called 
"  weak,"  by  J.  Grimm  and  the  latter,  which  requires  no 
such  aid,  he  called  "strong."  It  will  be  readily  seen  that 
the  weak  verbs  correspond  to  the  regular  verbs  of  the  or- 
dinary English  grammar,  and  the  strong  verbs  to  the  irreg- 
ular. English  grammars  are  however  coming  more  and 
more  to  adopt  the  German  terminology.  A  suffix  is  also  a 
characteristic  of  the  past  participle ;  in  the  weak  verbs  -/ 
or  -£/,  in  the  strong  -en.  Here  again  the  English  furnishes 
parallel  forms  in  '  learned '  and  '  given.'  The  weak  verbs 
in  German  as  in  English  comprise  much  the  largest  class 
and  their  mode  of  inflection  is  the  simpler  of  the  two.  The 
radical  vowel  of  the  present  tense  undergoes  no  change 
in  any  part  of  the  verb,  the  apparent  exception  in  frage 


256  A  History  of  the  German  Language 

fragstfragt,  alongside  tffrage  fragstfragt  being  due  to 
the  influence  of  the  strong  verb,  and  both  frug  and  fragte 
are  correct  preterits.  There  is  a  slight  difference  in  the 
preterits  of  the  weak  verbs,  some  having  final  -ete  and 
others  -te  only — for  example  lehrte,  hebte,  fragte,  but  bil- 
dete,  fiirchtete.  In  general  -ete  is  attached  to  all  stems  that 
end  in  a  /-sound.  The  M.  H.  G.  likewise  exhibits  both 
forms,  but  the  longer  would  in  obedience  to  a  phonetic 
law  previously  explained,  be  shortened  to  -te  by  the  sup- 
pression of  the  unaccented  medial  e.  In  the  case  of  words 
like  bild-te,  fiirch-te,  that  is,  where  the  final  sound  of  the 
stem  is  substantially  identical  with  the  initial  sound  of  the 
suffix,  it  would  be  difficult  to  pronounce  both  without  the 
intervention  of  another  vowel.  But  the  parallel  forms,  -te 
and  -ete,  of  the  M.  H.  G.  have  a  different  origin.  In  place 
of  the  monotonous  uniformity  exhibited  by  the  weak  verbs 
a  greater  variety  prevailed.  The  O.  H.  G.  possessed  three 
classes  of  weak  verbs,  distinguished  from  each  other  by 
the  final  -6,  or  -^,  or  -i,  of  the  stem.  To  illustrate  by  ex- 
amples, there  were  salbon  which  has  become  salben,  fragen 
which  is  now  fragen,  and  legian  or  lerian  that  are  still  in 
use  as  legen  and  lehren.  Similarly  we  have  in  Latin 
1  amare,'  tacere  '  and  '  andire.'  The  preterits  of  salbon  and 
fragen  were  salbota  &&&frageta,  which  in  the  M.  H.  G. 
became  salbete  andfrage/e.  A  distinction  must  be  made 
in  the  case  of  the  i-stems  between  those  in  which  this 
stem  was  short  and  in  which  it  was  long.  In  the  case  of 
the  former  the  stem-ending  in  the  preterit  remains ;  the 
O.  H.  G.  legita  became  legete  in  the  M.  H.  G.  In  case  of 
the  long  stems,  the  i  of  the  preterit  was  suppressed  in 
obedience  to  a  phonetic  law  that  need  not  be  considered 
here,  while  in  the  present  tense  it  remained  somewhat 
longer:  lerian,  lerta  became  M.  H.  G.  lerte.  In  conse- 
quence of  this  difference  between  the  i-stems  with  long 
syllables,  a  difference  also  arose  between  the  present  and 
the  preterit  tenses,  which  does  not  occur  in  the  other 


A  History  of  the  German  Language  257 

groups  of  verbs.  If  the  stems  of  verbs  contained  an  a  or 
an  o  or  an  u,  these  vowels  would  necessarily  take  the  um- 
laut in  course  of  time  in  the  present  teuse  where  an  i  fol- 
lowed in  the  next  syllable  ;  but  in  the  preterit  they  would 
remain  unchanged.  For  example,  brannian,  branta  be- 
comes brennen,  branta  and  later  brante.  Besides  this  verb 
the  German  contains  kannte,  nannte,  rannte,  sandte  and 
wandte,  that  appear  to  have  been  modified  by  umlaut,  but 
which  were  in  fact  not  so  modified,  as  has  been  pointed 
out  on  a  preceding  page.  In  like  manner  we  have  gebrannt, 
gekannt,  etc.,  because  substantially  the  same  phonetic 
changes  took  place  in  the  preterit  participle  which  the 
preterit  of  the  verb  proper  underwent.  In  the  M.  H.  G. 
what  the  German  grammarians  call  Riickumlaut — a  sort 
of  reversed  umlaut — affected  a  much  larger  number  of 
words  than  it  does  at  present.  Compare  decken  dacte, 
smecken  smacte,  beswaeren  beswarte,  loesen  loste,  hoeren  horte 
with  the  modern  preterits  deckte,  schmeckte,  loste,  horte,  etc. 
In  these  and  a  number  of  other  examples  the  radical 
vowel  of  the  preterit  has  been  modified  so  as  to  conform 
to  that  of  the  present,  and  only  a  few  participial  adjectives 
remain  as  evidence  of  the  former  state  of  affairs :  for  ex- 
ample, die  gedackten  Pfeifen  der  Or  gel  simply  means  die 
gedeckten,  etc ;  getrost  is  an  old  participle  of  trosten;  wohl- 
bestallt  recalls  bestelle,  bestalte,  bestalt.  In  the  last  series 
we  have  an  example  of  a  new  verb  formed  under  the  in- 
fluence of  the  participle,  viz.,  bes fallen.  Similarly  erboesen 
erboste  erbost  has  led  to  the  formation  of  a  new  verb  sich 
erbosen  (grow  angry).  A  like  relation  exists  between  lehren 
and  gelahrt,  and  durchlaucht,  erlaucht  and  durchleuchten, 
erleicchten.  The  singular  feature  of  this  change  of  the 
principal  vowel  lies  in  the  fact  that  the  participle,  though 
derived  from  the  verb,  afterward  brought  about  a  modifi- 
cation of  the  latter ;  or  to  use  a  slightly  mixed  metaphor, 
but  which  answers  the  purpose  very  well  here,  the  ances- 
tral type  was  conformed  to  that  of  the  descendant. 


258  A  History  of  the  German  Language 

We  find  in  the  strong  verbs  a  greater  variety  of  vowel 
changes  than  in  the  weak ;  here  we  see  exhibited  the  ef- 
fects of  the  three  phonetic  influences  before  designated  as 
Umlaut,  Brechung  (breaking)  and  Ablaut  (vowel-grada- 
tion). In  the  weak  verbs  the  stem  of  the  present  tense  al- 
ways ended  with  the  same  vowel  and  it  could  not  therefore 
effect  any  change  in  the  radical  vowel.  But  in  the  strong 
verbs  different  vowels  immediately  followed  the  final  con- 
sonant of  the  radical  syllable,  and  it  was  these  that  char- 
acterized the  various  subclasses.  For  example,  the  indic- 
ative present  of  tragen  in  the  most  ancient  O.  H.  G.  was 
thus  inflected:  Sing.  1.  tragu,  2.  tragis,  3.  tragit,  Plur.  1. 
bagames,  2.  traget,  3.  tragant.  In  the  natural  course  of  de- 
velopment of  the  language  the  a  of  the  second  and  third 
person  singular  would  receive  the  umlaut,  thus  becoming 
a.  This  is  the  present  state  of  all  similar  verbs  excepting 
du  haust,  erhaut  and  du  kommst,  er  kommt,  though  even  here 
we  find  the  variants  du  kbmmst,  er  k'ommt.  A  considerable 
number  of  the  dialects  have  however  dropped  the  umlaut 
under  the  influence  of  the  verbs  that  never  had  it,  as  trage 
tragsch,  tragt;  laufe,  laufsch,  lauft,  etc. 

The  diversity  of  endings  which  produced  umlaut  is 
likewise  the  cause  of  breaking  in  so  far  as  it  applies  to 
the  verb.  We  find  a  uniform  interchange  between  the 
vowels  e  and  i ;  the  latter  occuring  in  those  verbs  that  are 
capable  of  taking  the  umlaut,  the  former  in  those  which 
are  not.  Accordingly,  we  have  wir  geben,  ihr  gebt,  sie 
geben ;  e  also  occurs  regurlarly  in  the  subjunctive,  the 
infinitive  and  the  present  participle.  But  the  second  and 
third  persons  of  the  singular  are  giebst,  giebt,  (or  gibst  and 
gib£)  and  the  imperative  is  gieb.  In  the  first  person  sin- 
gular where  the  H.  G.  has  tch  gebe,  the  South  German 
dialects  exhibit  ich  gib,  ich  Us  (lese],  ich  nimm  (nehme), 
and  so  on.  This  represents  the  status  of  both  the  O.  G. 
H.  and  M.  H.  G.  i.  e.  gibu,  lisu,  nimu.  These  forms, 
however,  point  to  the  earlier  existence  of  gebu,  nemu,  lesu; 


A  History  of  the  German  Language  259 

but  the  first  person  was  changed  to  conform  to  the  second 
and  third.  In  the  N.  H.  G.  the  original  status  has 
unconsciously  been  restored :  under  the  influence  of  the 
first  person  Plur.  geben,  the  M.  H.  G.  ich  gtbe  has  become 
ich  gebe,  and  similarly  giebst,  giebt  was  made  to  conform 
to  the  type  trage,  tragst,  tragt.  But  here  again  the  South 
and  Middle  German  dialects  have  gone  still  farther,  so 
that  we  find  du  gebsch,  er  gebt;  du  nemsch,  er  nemmt.  The 
interchange  between  e  and  i  does  not  occur  in  verbs  whose 
stem  ends  in  a  double  nasal  or  in  a  nasal  in  combination 
with  a  mute.  In  such  cases  e  had  been  changed  to  i  in 
prehistoric  times  even  when  an  a  followed.  We  have, 
accordingly,  ich  beginne,  wir  beginnen ;  ich  finde,  wir  finden. 
Exactly  parallel  with  this  interchange  between  e  and  i  is 
that  between  iu  and  ie  in  the  M.  H.  G.,  or  iu  and  io  of  the 
O.  H.  G.  which  has  already  been  pointed  out.  The  M. 
H.  G.  has  ich  fliuge,  du  fliugest,  er  fliuget,  but  wir  fliegen,  ir 
flieget,  sie  fliegent.  The  German  of  Luther's  Bible  con- 
serves many  remnants  of  unbroken  verbal  forms,  such  as 
fteucht,  kreucht,  leugt,  zeucht;  but  in  the  current  literary 
language  the  unbroken  forms  have  carried  the  day  every- 
where, so  that  we  have  ich  fliege  like  wir  fliegen.  The 
archaic  forms  are  still  occasionally  used  in  poetry.  The 
perfect  tense  of  the  strong  verbs  was  originally  formed  in 
two  ways.  The  first  was  by  means  of  a  reduplicating 
syllable  prefixed  to  the  stem  :  in  other  words  a  syllable 
was  formed  by  means  of  the  initial  consonant  or  conso- 
nants together  with  the  vowel  e,  and  placed  before  the 
word  as  a  prefix.  In  the  second,  vowel-gradation  was 
employed.  Reduplication  is  a  familiar  phenomenon  in 
Greek  and  Latin,  as  may  be  seen  in  such  examples  as 
Tpe<f>(o,  rerpo^a ;  pello,  pepuli.  The  examples,  however,  in 
which  these  two  processes  are  plainly  evident  in  the  Ger- 
manic languages  are  very  few.  Even  in  the  Gothic  traces  of 
reduplication  are  rare  and  in  the  majority  of  cases  vowel- 
gradation  has  been  obscured  or  wholly  obliterated  by  the 


260  A  History  of  the  German  Language 

influence  of  phonetic  laws.  We  find  in  letan  (let)  lelot, 
both  reduplication  and  vowel-gradation,  but  haldan,  hehald; 
haitan,  hehait;  hlaupan,  hehlaup.  In  consequence  of  con- 
traction and  other  transformations  these  perfects  were  so 
changed  that  they  uniformly  exhibit  the  diphthong  ie  in 
the  M.  H.  G.  and  i  (or  ie)  in  the  N.  H.  G.  no  matter  what 
the  vowel  of  the  present  tense  may  have  been.  The  pre- 
terit participle,  which  in  the  strong  verb  is  generally 
subject  to  vowel-gradation,  has  the  same  vowel  as  the 
present  in  most  of  these  reduplicated  verbs.  Compare, 
e.  g.,  the  Latin  pello  pulsus,  vello  vulsus,  sero  satus. 
The  following  types  of  N.  H.  G.  verbs  belong  to  this  class : 

(1)  halten  hielt  gehalten     and    fallen       fiel     gefallen, 

(2)  blasen  blies  geblasen, 

(3)  rufen  rief  gerufen, 

(4)  heiszen  hiesz  geheiszen, 

(5)  laufen  lief  gelaufen     and    hauen       hieb    gehauen. 

Very  few  Germanic  verbs  show  reduplication  proper 
even  in  the  oldest  forms  accessible  to  modern  research ; 
but,  perhaps,  owing  to  this  fact  vowel-gradation  has  been 
the  more  fully  developed,  and  is,  therefore,  the  more 
clearly  marked.  Many  verbs  exhibit  not  merely  two  tones 
or  letters  of  the  vowel  scale,  but  even  three,  though  the 
latter  are  greatly  in  the  minority.  Or,  to  illustrate  the 
statement  by  modern  examples,  we  have  about  four  times 
as  often  the  gradation  bleiben  blieb  gebleiben  as  singen  sang 
gesungen.  In  the  latter  case  we  always  find  in  the  O.  G. 
a  different  vowel  in  the  preterit  singular  from  that  in  the 
plural  of  the  same  tense.  This  variation  is  not  accidental, 
and  not  every  vowel  can  be  substituted  for  any  other. 
An  a,  e.  g.,  may  not  occur  in  the  same  stem  with  certain 
others,  ei  for  instance.  Those  vowels  that  regularly  suc- 
ceed each  other  in  the  same  stem  constitute  what  is  known 
as  a  gradation  series  (Ablautsrethe}.  This  series  is  in  the 
M.  H.  G.  as  follows : 


A  History  of  the  German  Language  261 

Class  I.,  containing  a  in  the  present  tense, 

Pres.  Pret.  Sing.         Pret.  Plur.       Pret.  Part. 

trage  truoc  truogen  getragen 

Class  II.,  containing  e  or  i  in  the  present  tense,  sub- 
class (a), 

Pres.  Pret.  Sing.         Pret.  Plur.       Pret.  Part. 

ich  binde  bant  bunden  gebunden 

wir  binden 

ich  wirfe  warf  ivurfen  geworfen 

wir  werfen 

On  the  change  from  e  to  i,  or  from  u  to  o,  see  page  230. 
This  class  no  longer  exists  in  its  purity  in  the  N.  H.  G., 
the  variation  between  the  different  forms  of  the  preterit 
having  been  suppressed.  In  a  majority  of  cases  the  sin- 
gular has  gained  the  mastery :  compare  fand  fanden, 
gelang  gelangen,  half  halfen,  sprang  sprangen,  but  which 
were  in  M.  H.  G.  fant  funden,  half  hulfen,  etc.  Alongside 
of  sangen  an  older  form  has  been  preserved  in  the  familiar 
proverb,  Wie  die  Alien  sungen, 

So  zwitschem  diejungen, 

through  the  influence  of  the  rime  demanded  by  Jungen. 
In  other  cases  the  vowel  of  the  plural  remains,  though 
not  in  its  M.'H.  G.  form  as  #,  but  in  its  M.  G.  transforma- 
tion as  o.  See  ante  p.  230.  Examples  are  ich  glomm  wit 
glommen,  schwoll  schwollen,  schmolz  schmolzen,  which  were 
M.  H.  G.  glam  glummen,  swal  swullen,  smalz  smulzen.  In  a 
single  case  only  does  the  modern  German  exhibit  a  and  u 
in  parallel  forms,  ich  ward  and  ich  wurde  wir  wurden,  M.  H. 
G.  wart  wurden.  The  reason  of  this  exception  is  not  clear. 
Class  II.,  sub-class  (b),  in  which  the  stem-vowel  is  fol- 
lowed either  by  a  liquid  or  a  nasal  or  the  combination  of  a 
stopped  consonant  with  a  liquid, 

ich  nime  nam  ndmen  genomen 

wir  nemen 

ich  spriche  sprach          sprdchen        gesprochen 

wir  sprechen 


262  A  History  of  the  German  Language 

To  this  type  a  few  verbs  of  the  older  language  conform 
whose  stem  contains  no  liquid,  as  fichte  gefochten  following 
flihte  geflohten,  sleeken  gestochen  following  brechen  gebrochen 
and  sprechen  gesprochen.  In  the  N.  H.  G.  the  diversity 
which  formerly  existed  between  the  singular  and  the 
plural  has  been  eliminated,  so  that  the  older  ich  sprach, 
wir  sprechen  has  become  ich  sprach,  wir  sprachen.  In  a  con- 
siderable number  of  verbs  even  the  difference  between  the 
preterit  tense  and  the  preterit  participle  has  disappeared, 
as  may  be  seen  in 

ich  schere       schor        schoren         geschoren 

M.  H.  G.         ich  schire        schar        scharen        geschoren 

ich  pflege        pflog        pflogen        gepflogen 

M.  H.  G.         ich  pflige'       pflac        pflagen        gepflogen 

In  the  N.  H.  G.  schworen  has  conformed  to  the  type 
scheren  and  heben  to  that  of  pflegen.  Both  verbs  originally 
belonged  to  the  type  tragen. 

ich  swere  swuor  geswaren 

ich  hebe  huop  gehaben 

The  anomalous  present  tense  is  due  to  the  fact  that  their 
historical  antecedents  were  swarm  and  habiu;  there  was, 
therefore,  an  external  correspondence  to  the  present  tense 
of  the  i-class.  See  ante  p.  256.  We  still  have  in  the  ad- 
jective erhaben  an  old  participle  of  the  erheben,  which 
was  subsequently  displaced  by  the  analogical  form 
erhoben. 

Class  II.,  sub-class  (c)  in  which  e  (i)  is  followed  by  a  sin- 
gle consonant  which  is  neither  a  liquid  nor  a  nasal,  pro- 
vided no  combination  of  such  a  consonant  with  others 
precedes. 

Pres.         Pret.  Sing.        Pret.  Plur.        Pret.  Part. 
ich  gibe  gap  gaben  gegeben 

wir  geben 

The  M.  H.  G.  gdp  gdben  has  become  gab  gaben,  but  the 
L,.  G.  has  in  many  cases  conserved  the  original  quantity. 
The  verbs  bewegen  and  weben  now  follow  the  type  of 


A  History  of  the  German  Language  263 

pflegen,  heben  though  originally  they  were  inflected  like 
geben. 

ich  bewige          bewac          bewagen          bewegen 
ich  wibe  wap  waben  geweben. 

Class  III.,  containing  long  i  in  the  present  tense. 
Pres.         Pret.  Sing.        Pret.  Plur.        Pret.  Part. 

ich  schribe         schreip  schriben  geschriben 

The  diphthong  in  the  preterit  singular  of  the  N.  H.  G. 
has  been  dropped  entirely  and  its  place  taken  by  the  vowel 
of  the  preterit  plural  and  the  past  participle.  To  this  class 
belong  also  the  modern  verb  scheiden  which  was  originally 
inflected  like  the  reduplicating  verbs,  M.  H.  G.  scheide, 
schiet,  gescheiden.  The  adjective  bescheiden  is  a  remnant  of 
the  older  inflection,  it  being  a  participle  of  bescheiden. 

Class  IV.,  interchanging  iu  with  ie  in  the  present  tense. 
Pres.         Pret.  Sing.        Pret.  Plur.        Pret.  Part. 

ich  fliuge  flouc  flugen  geflogen 

i<jir  fliegen 

The  N.  H.  G.  development  of  this  series  corresponds 
throughout  with  the  preceding  except  that  as  in  Class  II. 
(a),  the  u  of  the  preterit  plural  does  not  prevail  but  appears 
as  o.  To  this  class  belongs  also  saufen  soff,  saugen  sog, 
of  which  the  present  tense  was  different  from  that  of  fliuge 
in  the  earliest  period  of  the  language,  though  the  other 
forms  were  similar.  Closely  connected  with  the  variations 
produced  by  means  of  vowel-gradation,  a  number  of  verbs 
exhibit  a  change  of  consonants  due  ultimately  to  a  differ- 
ence in  accent.  It  has  been  previously  shown,  when 
speaking  of  Verner's  Law,  that  the  accent  determines 
whether  an  Indo-European  tenuis  shall  be  represented  in 
the  Germanic  by  a  spirant  or  a  medial  mute, — whether  h 
or  g,  e.  g.,  should  take  the  place  of  primitive  k,  and  th  or 
d  that  of  t.  Thus  the  root '  duk '  (Lat.  due)  would  give  in 
the  O.  H.  G.  the  verb  ziohan  (Eng.  tug  and  tow),  in  the 
M.  H.  G.  ziehen  and  ich  ziuhe,  wir  zugen,  gezogen,  N.  H.  G. 
ziehen,  zog,  gezogen.  Similarly  snide,  sniten,  gesniten  gives 


264  A  History  of  the  German  Language 

schneiden,  schnitt,  geschmtten.  This  shift  has  also  been 
preserved  in  the  N.  H.  G.  leiden  and  sieden,  where  we  find 
leiden,  litt,  gelitten  and  sieden,  sott,  gesotten,  respectively. 
In  the  M.  H.  G.  we  likewise  find  slake,  sluogen,  geslagen; 
but  the  N.  H.  G.  has  assimilated  this  verb  to  the  type  rep- 
resented by  tragen  and  formed  a  new  present,  schlagen,  ich 
schlage.  The  M.  H.  G.  has  also  ich  gedlhe  (gedeike),  wir 
gedigen,  gedigen;  but  the  N.  H.  G.  adjective  gediegen  is  the 
only  part  of  the  verb  that  has  been  able  to  resist  the  level- 
ing process,  and  we  have  now  only  ichgedeihe.  In  some 
of  the  dialects  g  has  occasionally  displaced  h  and  we  find 
ziege  instead  of  ziehen. 

Parallel  with  the  substitution  h:g  and  d:t  is  that  of  s:r. 
This  is  shown  in  the  N.  H.  G.  erkiese,  erkor,  erkoren,  and 
war,  ivaren,  gewesen.  We  find  it  too  in  the  M.  H.  G.friuse, 
ivirfruren,  gefroren^  and  verliuse,  wir  verluren,  verloren.  With 
these  examples  we  may  compare  the  Eng.  '  lose  '  and  '  for- 
lorn.' A  few  other  German  words  still  retain  the  original  s. 
The  tendency  of  s  to  become  r  is  seen  in  other  Indo-Euro- 
pean languages.  In  Eng.  we  have  '  I  was '  but '  we  were  ; ' 
throughout  this  verb  the  interchange  of  s  and  r  is  traceable 
to  the  Anglo-Saxon  period.  Similarly  in  Latin  we  have 
es,  est,  esses,  esset,  but  eras,  erat,  eris,  erit.  The  weak 
verbs,  likewise,  show  some  instances  of  interchange  be- 
tween consonants ;  which  have,  however,  no  connection 
with  those  just  set  forth.  We  find,  e.  g.,  bringen,  brachte 
and  denken,  dachte  in  accordance  with  a  phonetic  law  pre- 
viously set  forth :  viz,  that  in  German  only  a  spirant  can 
stand  before  /.  The  n  occurring  before  the  spirant  h  was 
dropped.  The  M.  H.  G.  exhibits  the  forms  mich  diinket, 
mich  duhte  (methinks,  methought).  Here  too  there  has 
been  assimilation  or  leveling.  In  the  first  place  the  um- 
laut of  the  present  was  carried  over  to  the  preterit  which 
became  dduchte.  Subsequently  a  new  preterit  dilnkte  was 
created  for  the  present  di'mken,  and  for  the  preterit  dduchte 
a  new  present  dducht  and  even  dduchtet.  The  O.  H.  G. 


A  History  of  the  German  Language  265 

predecessor  of  diinken  is  dunchan.  and  that  of  denken  is 
denchan,  the  two  words  being  represented  in  A.-S.  by 
'  thencan  '  and  '  thincan  '  respectively.  Both  have  become 
blended  in  the  modern  English  '  to  think,'  a  process  that  had 
already  begun  in  the  A.-S.  period.  A  reminiscence  of  the 
original  difference  is  preserved  in  the  archaic  '  methinks,' 
but  '  seem  '  has  almost  entirely  usurped  its  functions. 

In  German,  as  in  English,  a  number  of  verbs  have  both 
the  strong  and  the  weak  inflection.  For  example,  ich 
salze,  ich  salzte  has  for  its  participle  gesalzen  (not  gesalzt). 
This  mixture  does  not  exist  in  the  earliest  stage  of  the 
verbs,  and  may  have  been  brought  about  by  one  of  several 
causes.  Some  strong  verbs  may  have  followed  the  anal- 
ogy of  weak  verbs  in  the  imperfect  or  the  participle,  or 
both.  In  the  M.  H.  G.  we  find  ich  salze,  ich  sietz,gesalzen, 
and  instead  of  the  modern  ich  spalte,  ich  spaltete,  gespallet 
or  gespalten  only  ich  spalte,  ich  spielt,  gespalten.  Fallen  and 
schaben  shared  a  similar  fate,  as  evidences  of  which  the  ad- 
jectives gefalten  and  abgeschaben  remain^  The  influence 
of  the  strong  system  of  inflection  upon  the  weak  is  much 
more  extensive  than  vice  versa,  and  many  verbs  originally 
weak  have  become  strong.  Thus  fragte  is  older  than 
frug,  which  has  doubtless  been  influenced  by  the  type 
tragen  trug,  schlagen  schlug.  Ich  steckte  is  more  primitive 
than  ich  stack,  which  now  conforms  to  the  type  erschrecken 
erschrack.  The  same  is  true  of  ding  en  gedingt  as  related 
to  dang  gedungen,  which  has  yielded  to  the  influence  of 
singen  sang  or  springen  sprang.  The  dialects  exhibit 
many  more  examples  of  transition  from  weak  to  the  strong 
conjugation.  A  number  of  older  verbs  had  both  strong 
and  weak  inflections,  and  two  or  more  of  these  being 
often  nearly  alike  in  the  present,  came  in  the  course  of  time 
to  be  confounded.  It  occurred  quite  frequently  that  a 
strong  verb  with  intransitive  and  a  weak  verb  with  transi- 
tive signification  were  developed  from  the  same  stem. 
The  M.  H.  G.  contained  two  verbs,  leschen  or  erleschen 
18 


266  A  History  of  the  German  Language 

(to  cease  to  burn)  and  loschen  (to  extinguish).  Of  the 
former  the  imperfect  was  erlasch,  of  the  latter  erlaschte. 
But  the  N.  H.  G.  has  made  of  the  one  erlische  erlosch  er- 
loschen^  and  of  the  other  erloschen  erloschte  erloscht. 
Similar  doubles  are  erschrecken  erschrack  erschrocken  ( be 
frightened)  and  erschrecken  erschreckte  erschreckt  (fright- 
en )  and  schwellen  schwoll  geschwollen  and  schwellen 
schwellte  geschwellt.  The  plural  number  of  the  present 
tense  of  both  verbs,  as  also  the  subjunctive  together  with 
the  infinitive  present,  have  always  the  vowel  e  in  the  M. 
H.  G.,  with  this  difference,  however,  that  this  e  in  the 
strong  verbs,  which  sometimes  appears  as  i,  was  a  broken 
vowel,  while  in  the  weak  it  was  modified  {umgelauiet\ 
and,  therefore,  differently  pronounced.  The  older  N.  H. 
G.  possessed  two  imperfects,  lud  and  ladete,  that  are  often 
taken  to  be  interchangeable.  In  this  case  two  verbs  have 
been  confounded  which  were  originally  identical  neither 
in  form  or  meaning.  In  the  O.  H.  G.  hladan  hluod 
gehladan  meant^f  load,'  and  ladon  ladota  giladot  '  invite.' 
A  singular  mixture  of  strong  and  weak  inflections  is  ex- 
hibited by  the  auxiliaries  ich  musz,  ich  kann,  ich  darf,  tch 
mag,  ich  sol/,  ich  weisz,  though  they  do  not  all,  strictly 
speaking,  perform  the  same  office  in  German  as  in  En- 
glish. •  It  is  noticeable,  in  the  first  place,  that  they  lack 
the  endings  in  the  first  and  third  person  of  the  singular  of 
the  present  tense  which  all  the  other  verbs  have.  This 
occurs  elsewhere  only  in  the  preterit  of  the  strong  verbs ; 
and  this  fact  furnishes  us  the  key  to  the  solution  of  the 
enigma :  these  six  verbs  now  used  as  presents  were  origi- 
nally preterits  and  are  accordingly  called  preterit-presents. 
The  loss  from  disuse  of  the  present  tense  of  verbs  and  the 
substitution  of  the  perfect  with  a  present  signification  is 
met  with  in  both  Greek  and  Latin  and  in  other  languages. 
E.  g.  coepi  ( I  begin ),  novi  ( I  know),  odi  and  0*180.  are  verbs 
of  this  type.  The  German  weisz  corresponds  exactly  to 
the  Greek.  Weiss  at  first,  doubtless,  meant  '  I  have  seen/ 


A  History  of  the  German  Language  267 

and  is  probably  referable  to  a  present  ich  wize  of  type  III. 
ante.  It  is  the  only  remnant  of  the  old  preterits  of  this 
ablaut-series  since  meit,  treip,  schreib,  etc.,  have  been  dis- 
placed by  analogous  forms,  viz.,  mied,  trieb,  schrieb.  Ich 
musz,  M.  H.  G.  muoz,  belongs  to  the  type  tragen.  We  are 
probably  correct  in  assuming  the  former  existence  of  pres- 
ents kinnan,  derfan,  megan,  skelan,  to  which  the  modern 
ich  kann,  darf,  mag,  soil  (O.  H.  G.  skal,  A.-S.  sceal,  Eng. 
shall )  are  preterits  according  to  our  types  II.  (b)  and  (c). 
When  the  original  signification  as  a  past  tense  had  been 
forgotten,  from  whatever  cause,  and  these  forms  had  come 
to  be  used  for  present  time  a  new  series  of  imperfects  was 
formed  after  the  pattern  of  the  weak  verbs. 

The  L.  G.  gahn  and  stahn  are  explained  by  the  long  a, 
as  also  the  South  German  goh  and  stoh.  The  preterit  of 
gehen  is  formed  as  if  from  a  present  gangen  (cf.  fangen, 
fieng],  which  in  fact  once  existed  and  is  conserved  in  some 
of  the  dialects,  not  only  of  Germany  but  also  of  England 
and  Scotland.  The  mediaeval  preterit  of  st£n  was  stuont, 
which  is  likewise  referable  to  a  still  current  dialectic 
standen.  It  followed  the  type  trage,  truoc.  Ich  stund,  wir 
stunden  is  occasionally  used,  but  is  archaic.  It  was  first 
inflected  after  the  type  bant  bunden  and  became  ich  stand 
wir  stunden;  when,  subsequently,  the  plural  of  this  series 
was  modified  to  conform  to  the  singular  in  the  preterit  ich 
stand,  wir  stunden  followed  suit  and  became  ich  stand  wir 
standen.  On  L.  G.  territory  the  influence  of  analogy  pro- 
duced a  different  phonetic  change :  stan  stunt  became  the 
pattern  after  which  the  imperfects  gung  and  /ting  were 
formed  to  gan  and  fangen.  The  case  of  thun,  that  is  some- 
what different.  The  O.  H.  G.  preterit  of  tuon  was  teta. 
Here  te  is  a  reduplication  of  ta,  both  the  preterit  and  the 
present  stem  having  probably  once  been  identical.  The 
difference,  doubtless,  grew  out  of  the  fact  that  in  the  pret- 
erit the  stem  was  unaccented  and  its  vowel  accordingly 
weakened.  The  O.  H.  G.  teta  appears  in  M.  H.  G.  as  tete, 


268  A  History  of  the  German  Language 

which  is  virtually  the  that,  met  with  in  popular  songs  and 
in  the  poems  of  Uhland,  a  Swabian.  The  plural  of  teta 
is  tafun,  a  verb-form  hard  to  explain,  which  became  N.  H. 
G.  thaten.  The  singular  number  that  is  a  new  creation 
after  the  model  of  the  plural.  The  German  verb  sein,  like 
the  verb  'to  be,'  is  made  up  of  three  different  roots  or  stems. 
The  first  had  an  initial  b  which  is  represented  by  the  Latin 
f  in  '  fui,'  '  fore,'  '  futurum  esse,'  that  is  ich  bin  du  bist, 
which  is  also  found  in  the  Eng.  '  be  '  '  been  '  '  being.'  The 
second  is  '  es  '  and  occurs  in  Lat.  '  est '  '  eram  '  for  '  esam,' 
i.  e.,  er  tst  (he  is,  etc.).  An  abbreviated  form  of  this  same 
root  occurs  in  the  subjunctive  er  set,  the  indicative  sind, 
and  in  the  Lat.  'sunt'  'sim.'  The  third  is  'wes,'  Eng.  'was,1 
'  were,'  which  has  no  corresponding  form  in  Latin.  Here 
belongs  the  M.  H.  G.  preterit  ich  was,  wir  waren,  the  in- 
finitive Wesen  now  used  only  as  a  substantive,  and  the  old 
participle  found  in  abwesend,  anwesend,  etc. 

It  yet  remains  to  consider  one  point  in  the  structure  of 
the  preterit  participle.  We  find  both  gezeugt  and  bezeugt, 
er  ist  alt  geworden,  but  er  ist  geschlagen  warden,  how  shall 
we  explain  this  prefix  ge-?  The  participle  had  originally 
no  prefix,  as  may  be  seen  in  the  Gothic  binda  (I  bind) 
bundans  (gebunderi).  But  the  older  Germanic  possessed  a 
large  number  of  verbs  in  pairs  formed  from  the  same 
stem,  one  of  which  had  the  prefix  ge,  while  the  other  was 
without  it.  To  this  class  belong  bieten  and  gebieten, 
brauchen  and  gebrauchen,  leiten  and  geletten.  The  differ- 
ence in  meaning  was  hardly  more  than  one  of  degree,  the 
prefix  serving  merely  to  intensify  or  to  designate  the  com- 
pletion of  the  action.  From  the  nature  of  the  case  the 
composite  form  would  be  frequently  used  as  a  preterite 
participle,  and  the  syllable  ge-  came  in  the  course  of  time 
to  be  regarded  as  the  essential  characteristic  of  this  part 
of  the  verb.  A  long  list  of  verbs,  however,  remained  free 
from  this  prefix  owing  to  the  fact  that  they  were  already 
provided  with  an  inseparable  prefix.  The  German  is  nat- 


269 

urally  averse  to  the  use  of  a  second  prefix  before  a  word 
that  is  already  provided  with  one,  and  we  could  hardly 
expect  to  find  gebeleben  alongside  of  beleben,  geverstehen 
and  verstehen,  or  gezerreiszen  and  zerreiszen.  Plainly, 
then,  there  would  be  no  such  participles  as  gebelebt  or  ge- 
verstanden.  But  few  uncompounded  verbs  form  their  par- 
ticiple without  ge-  except  warden,  which  has  already  been 
mentioned.  Among  these  we  find  rechtschaffen  as  well  as 
geschaffen,  trunken  as  well  as  gelrunken,  and  also  lassen 
alongside  of  gelassen.  In  these  instances  the  old  partici- 
ple, owing  to  the  absence  of  the  prefix  ge-,  is  commonly 
regarded  as  an  infinitive.  In  the  folk-speech  of  some 
parts  of  South  Germany  the  omission  of  ge-  is  still 
common. 


WHAT   IS   ANALOGY   IN    LANGUAGE  ? 

Owing  to  the  fact  that  the  law  of  analogy  plays  a  very 
important  part  in  the  morphology  of  all  the  languages  of 
the  Indo-European  stock  it  may  be  well  to  consider  this 
part  of  our  subject  a  little  more  fully.  It  is  a  well  known 
fact  that  all  these  languages  exhibit  the  fullest  and  most 
varied  vowel  system  in  the  oldest  specimens  that  have 
been  preserved.  Ante-classical  Latin  had  a  number  of 
diphthongs  that  were  subsequently  fused  into  single 
vowels,  and  this  process  went  still  farther  in  its  deriva- 
tives the  Romance  languages.  Modern  Greek  gives  the 
same  sound  to  a  number  of  vowels  and  diphthongs  that 
were  differently  pronounced  in  the  ancient  Greek,  77,  i,  v, 
«,  01,  and  vi  all  being  sounded  like  the  long  e  ( or  i  as  in 
machine)  in  English.  The  Gothic  of  which  we  possess 
long  specimens  by  several  centuries  older  than  any  other 
Germanic  dialect  has  a  much  more  fully  developed  vowel 
system  than  the  later  German.  In  short  there  is  a  univer- 
sal tendency  toward  simplification,  both  in  vowels  and 


270  A  History  of  the  German  Language 

consonants.  A  sound  that  was  frequently  used  began  to 
modify  others  until  in  the  course  of  time  several  sounds 
were  blended  into  one  and  the  same  sound,  or  a  certain 
form  of  the  noun  or  verb  was  taken  as  a  general  type  and 
all  similar  words  used  in  the  same  sense  conformed  to  this 
type.  In  Latin,  for  example,  the  nominative  plural  of 
words  ended  in  -ae,  or  -i,  or  -es,  or  -us.  But  in  the  French 
nearly  all  plurals  end  in  -s  or  an  s-sound.  A  large  num- 
ber of  words  from  the  first,  second,  and  fourth  declension 
of  the  Latin  passed  into  the  French,  yet  their  plurals 
nearly  all  end  like  the  plurals  of  the  third.  It  is  evident 
that  the  plurals  of  this  declension  became  the  type  of  all 
plurals  in  French  and  words  that  originally  formed  their 
plurals  differently  were  made  by  analogy  to  conform  to  it. 
The  A.-S.  had  also  a  number  of  different  endings  for  the 
Nom.  Plur.  and  the  Gen.  Sing.  The  former  with  few  ex- 
ceptions have  become  -s  or  -es  and  the  latter  's  which  is 
our  modern  English  possessive  case.  1  In  other  words,  the 
prevalent  type  in  the  course  of  time  became  almost  uni- 
versal. The  Italian  for  various  causes  was  less  simplified 
than  the  French,  yet  even  here  some  of  the  Latin  plurals 
were  given  up  and  the  ending  -e  became  the  general  type 
for  feminine  plurals  and  -i  for  the  masculine.  The  influ- 
ence of  analogy  may  be  daily  observed  in  the  speech  of 
children  and  uneducated  persons.  At  a  certain  stage  in 
its  mental  development  the  child  will  form  the  incorrect 
preterit  "  I  thinked  ''  and  the  like,  because  many  preterits 
are  formed  in  this  way  and  it  is  misled  by  analogy.  The 
incorrect  "  brung  ''  is  formed  after  the  analogy  of  '  sing,' 
'  sung.'  For  the  same  reason  we  hear  persons  say 
"  sheeps,"  "  memorandums,"  "  cherubims,"  because  they 
have  not  observed  that  these  and  many  similar  words  have 
a  peculiar  plural  and  they  are  misled  by  the  general  law 
of  English  plurals.  It  will  be  readily  seen  from  these  few 
examples  that  at  a  period  when  languages  have  not  yet 
acquired  a  degree  of  stableness  by  being  embodied  in  a 


A  History  of  the  German  Language  271 

written  literature  such  changes  might  in  a  comparatively 
short  period  of  time  effect  a  complete  revolution  in  this 
phonetic  system. 

THE  SYNTAX  OF  THE  NEW  HIGH  GERMAN. 

The  syntax  of  a  language,  except  so  far  as  it  relates  to 
the  order  of  words  and  the  arrangement  of  sentences  or 
parts  of  sentences,  is,  in  the  last  analysis,  nothing  more 
nor  less  than  a  department  of  the  general  subject  of  the 
meaning  of  verbal  signs,  or  sematology.  What  case  is  to 
be  used  with  a  preposition  depends  upon  the  significance 
of  the  case.  Whether  I  am  to  use  '  in  '  with  the  accusa- 
tive in  Latin  or  German,  with  the  dative  in  German  or 
the  ablative  in  Latin  must  be  determined  by  the  meaning 
I  intend  to  convey  to  the  hearer  or  reader.  Whether  the 
indicative  or  the  subjunctive  mood  is  to  be  used  in  a  sub- 
ordinate sentence  depends  upon  the  difference  in  meaning 
between  these  two  forms  of  the  verb.  That  the  Germans 
say  etne  fromme  Frau  and  not  eine  frommer  Frau  is  solely 
due  to  the  fact  that  they  have  from  time  immemorial  been 
accustomed  to  associate  the  notion  of  masculinity  with  the 
nominative  frommer.  The  signification  of  the  different 
forms  of  the  same  word  varies  according  to  its  endings ; 
it  would  not  therefore  be  much  amiss  to  designate  that 
part  of  grammar  which  is  usually  called  syntax,  the  doc- 
trine of  the  meaning  of  the  flectional  syllables.  In  this 
book  we  have  thus  far  discussed  hardly  any  changes  in  the 
meaning  of  words,  except  those  that  have  taken  place  in 
the  radical  syllables.  But  even  here  we  are,  at  least  in  part, 
within  the  domain  of  syntax  so  far  as  it  concerns  those 
variations  in  the  signification  of  words,  which  take  them 
out  of  the  class  to  which  they  naturally  belong  in  a  gram- 
matical system.  When  an  adjective  is  used  as  a  noun,  as 
when,  for  example,  the  word  Fiirst,  which  is  simply  the 
superlative  of  vor  (Eng.  fore)  and  literally  means  the  first 


272  A  History  of  the  German  Language 

or  foremost,  is  used  to  designate  a  prince,  the  procedure 
is  exactly  parallel  to  the  use  of  Korn  (corn)  to  designate  a 
particular  cereal.  We  do  not  generally  think  of  a  noble- 
man as  a  noble  man,  nor  of  a  gentleman  as  a  gentle  man, 
any  more  than  the  uneducated  German  sees  any  necessary 
connection  between  ein  Edelmann  and  ein  edler  Mann,  yet 
we  have  here  the  assumption,  by  a  particular  class,  as  a 
sort  of  mental  escutcheon,  of  an  attribute  that  is  equally 
applicable  to  some  men  in  all  classes.  The  indefinite  man 
is  no  more  nor  less  than  a  faded  and  generalized  Mann, 
just  as  the  French  'on  '  is  a  remnant  of  the  Latin  '  homo  :' 
both  are  used  in  the  same  sense.  Here  we  have  a  process 
analogous  to  that  through  which  schetnen  passed ;  for 
while  it  is  cognate  with  '  shine  '  and  meant  originally  to 
emit  rays  of  light  it  is  now  frequently  used  in  the  sense 
of  '  seem.' 


THE   PARTS   OF   SPEECH. 

All  the  primitive  words  in  a  language  are  divisible  into 
four  classes  and  four  only:  nouns  and  adjectives,  numer- 
als, verbs,  and  pronouns.  Our  present  knowledge  does 
not  justify  a  further  reduction,  though  it  is  maintained  by 
some  writers  on  language  that  all  parts  of  speech  were 
originally  derived  from  two — the  verb  and  the  pronoun. 
Nouns,  or  substantives,  and  adjectives  form  but  one  class ; 
for  at  first  every  noun  designated  but  a  single  quality  of 
an  object.  New  nouns  are  still  frequently  formed  from 
adjectives.  The  converse  process,  that  is,  the  formation  of 
adjectives  from  substantives,  is  of  much  rarer  occurrence. 
The  substantival  origin  is  plainly  recognizable  in  the  few 
examples  found  in  the  N.  H.  G — fetnd,  noth,  schade, 
schuld — from  the  fact  that  they  can  not  be  used  attribu- 
tively and  do  not  admit  of  comparison.  There  seems  to 
have  been  no  transition  from  the  verbal  class  into  any  of 


' 


A  History  of  the  German  Language  273 

the  other  three  classes,  nor  vice  versa.  It  is  probable, 
however,  that  a  few  pronouns  are  derived  from  other  parts 
of  speech ;  man  has  already  been  cited ;  jemand  and 
niemand  are  compounds  of  the  adverbs/^  and  nie  with  the 
same  word.  Jeghcher  is  a  combination  of  je  and  the  ad- 
jective gleich.  In  the  earlier  N.  H.  G.  the  adverb  so  is 
often  used  as  a  relative  pronoun.  Not  all  pronouns  proper 
are  equally  primitive :  welcher,  wer,  and  was  have  an  in- 
definite as  well  as  an  interrogative  meaning,  and  are  equiv- 
alent to  etwelcher,  etwas.  Both  the  Greek  ns  and  the 
Latin  '  quis,'  as  well  as  the  English  '  who  '  can  be  used  in 
either  sense.  There  are  reasons  for  believing  that  these 
words  acquired  an  interrogative  signification  sometime 
after  they  had  been  otherwise  used.  If  we  address  a  per- 
son with  du  suchsl  etwas  (lit.  thou  seekest  something),  we 
plainly  indicate  to  him  that  we  should  like  to  be  informed 
as  to  the  object  of  his  search  ;  and  we  use  an  interrogative 
sentence.  Neither  are  relative  pronouns  traceable  to  the 
roots  of  languages.  In  the  ordinary  speech  of  every-day 
life  comparatively  few  subordinate  sentences  are  used  ;  the 
information  to  be  communicated  is  conveyed  to  the  hearer 
in  a  succession  of  independent,  co-ordinate  sentences. 
This  is  a  characteristic  of  speech  in  its  most  primitive 
stage,  and  it  is  safe  to  assume  that  all  words  now  used  to 
connect  sentences  were  originally  employed  for  a  different 
purpose.  The  relative  pronoun  der,  die,  das,  was  at  first 
purely  demonstrative.  Such  a  sentence  as  "  es  zvar  der, 
der  gepredigt  hat "  was  in  O.  H.  G.  iz  was,  der  bredigota, 
and  in  a  still  earlier  stage  of  the  language  it  must  have 
been  es  war  der — er  hat  gepredigt.  In  that  stage  of  the 
language  when  the  pronoun  was  not  regarded  as  a  neces- 
sary accompanist  of  the  verb  we  would  have  had,  das  war 
der — hat  gebredigt,  iz  was  der — bredigota,  for  the  pro- 
noun must  have  been  placed  originally  at  the  end  of  the 
first  and  not  at  the  beginning  of  the  second  sentence. 
Subsequently,  when  it  had  become  necessary  to  express 


274  A  History  of  the  German  Language 

the  subject  of  the  verb,  it  looked  as  if  der  belonged  to  the 
following  verb.  A  sentence  like  das  tst  der  Mensch,  der 
mich  geschlagen  hat,  must  at  one  stage  of  the  language 
have  been  used  in  the  form,  das  ist  der  Mensch,  der  hat 
mich  geschlagen.  In  Eng.  this  would  be  equivalent  to  '  this 
is  the  person,  this  one  has  beaten  me.'  Here,  it  is  plain,  the 
relative  pronoun  belonged  in  the  first  instance  to  the  sen- 
tence in  which  we  now  find  it,  and  we  have  accordingly  to 
assume  two  points  of  origin  for  the  relative  der.  In  a  some- 
what different  way  the  relative  pronouns  wer,  was  and 
welcher  have  been  developed  from  the  interrogative  pro- 
nouns during  the  N.  H.  G.  period. 

The  adverbs  are,  in  so  far  as  they  can  be  traced  to  their 
source,  for  the  most  part  fossilized  or  stereotyped  case- 
forms,  and  in  many  instances  they  have  conserved  such 
significations  as  no  longer  attach  to  these  cases  in  the 
nouns  and  pronouns  as  at  present  employed.  There  is  a 
concealed  genitive  of  way  and  manner  in  einst ;  in  the  M. 
H.  G.  it  is  ernes,  the  regular  genitive  of  ein.  Plugs 
( quick )  is  properly  fluges,  im  Fluge ;  mittelst  takes  the 
place  of  mittels,  and  is,  therefore,  the  genitive  of  Mittel. 
The  form  of  the  dative  plural  is  latent  in  allenthalben  i.  e. 
allenhalben,  the  substantive  portion  of  this  compound  be- 
ing the  O.  H.  G.  halba,  die  Seite  (side),  and  occurs  in  the 
Eng.  be-half.  Weiland  is  traceable  to  the  older  form 
wilen,  the  Dat.  Plur.  of  wile  (time),  and  is  the  same  word 
as  the  Eng.  while  (a  little  while,  -between  whiles),  of 
which  the  older  authors  have  the  dative  whilom,  whilome, 
with  the  exact  meaning  of  weiland.  We  have  in  '  whilst ' 
the  excrescent  /  found  in  mittelst,  allen-t-halben,  etc.  Je 
and  me  are  concealed  accusatives,  the  O.  H.  G.  forms  be- 
ing io  and  nio  from  ni-io,  of  which  10  (older  eo)  corre- 
sponds to  a  Gothic  aiw,  the  Ace.  Sing,  of  aiws  (time, 
Eng.  aye).  Compare  the  Gr.  dtw  v  and  Lat.  aevum.  The 
German  nicht,  O.  H.  G.  mowiht,  is  compounded  of  nio  and 
the  accusative  (or  nominative)  wiht  (Eng.  wight).  A 


A  Ifistory  of  the  German  Language  275 

trace  of  the  substantival  character  of  mht  is  preserved  in 
the  phrase,  hier  ist  seines  Bleibens  mcht,  in  which  Bletbens 
is  an  old  partitive  genitive.  The  history  of  '  naught'  has 
several  points  in  common  with  that  of  nicht ;  its  older 
form  is  '  nawiht,'  i.  e.,  no  whit,  no  thing.  It  is  still 
further  contracted  in  '  not,'  the  o  of  which  has  led  to  the 
spelling  '  nought.' 

Closely  counected  with  the  adverbs  are  the  prepositions  ; 
and  it  is  probably  true  that  "  all  prepositions  were  origi- 
nally adverbs."  The  German,  like  the  English,  has  a 
long  list  of  words  that  belong  to  both  of  these  parts  of 
speech  :  for  example,  durch,  hindurch,  durchgegangen; 
um,  darum,  umgef alien ;  wider,  dawider,  widerreden,  etc. 
If  we  trace  backward  the  course  of  development  of  these 
words  we  find  that  the  adverbial  signification  is  always 
the  most  primitive.  In  the  earliest  periods  of  the  Indo- 
European  languages  there  was  no  need  of  prepositions : 
the  case-endings  were  in  themselves  sufficient  to  indicate 
the  different  relations  in  which  words  were  used.  A 
transition  stage  between  adverb  and  preposition  is  pre- 
served is  such  expressions  as  den  Tag  itber,  die  Nacht 
durch.  The  current  forms  of  many  prepositions  still  bear 
evident  traces  of  their  origin  in  other  forms  of  speech. 
The  preposition  zu  was  in  the  ninth  century  used  exclu- 
sively as  an  adverb.  Kraft,  laut,  wegen  and  others  have 
developed  their  adverbial  uses  since  the  M.  H.  G.  period, 
the  starting  point  being  such  datives  as  tn  Kraft,  nach 
Laut,  von — Wegen,  the  last  being  the  dative  plural  of  der 
Weg.  On  the  other  hand,  many  prepositions  have,  in 
combination  with  certain  case-forms,  aided  to  form  ad- 
verbs. Entlang,  entzwei  were  originally  in  lang,  in  zwei; 
neben  is  in  eben;  iiberall  is  equivalent  to  iiber  Alles,  and 
sintemal  takes  us  back  to  stnt  dent  mat,  i.  e.,  sett  dem  Mai, 
seit  der  Zeit. 

The  introduction  of  the  class  of  words  now  known  as 
conjunctions  was  likewise  a  gradual  process ;  in  the  earli- 


276  A  History  of  the  German  Language 

est  stage  of  the  language  no  need  of  them  was  felt.  Even 
at  the  present  day  the  illiterate  have  comparatively  little 
use  for  this  part  of  speech.  The  same  may  be  said  of 
poetry  and  of  language  intended  to  produce  lively  emo- 
tion, which  is  by  a  sort  of  atavism  a  partial  recurrence  to 
the  primitive  type  of  speech.  The  modern  German  Sie 
stand  und  weinte  could  be  expressed  in  O.  H.  G.  stuont, 
weinota.  Caesar's  famous  "  veni,  vidi,  vici  "  is  a  good  ex- 
ample of  the  effect  produced  by  a  series  of  sentences 
uttered  in  rapid  succession  without  connecting  words. 

Those  conjunctions  that  stand  at  the  head  of  subordi- 
nate sentences  have  been  developed  from  pronouns  or  ad- 
verbs. Their  office  is  either  to  introduce  the  sentence 
which  is  to  follow  or  refer  back  to  a  preceding  sentence. 
Many* conjunctions  perform  both  of  these  functions.  So  is 
a  word  of  this  class.  When  we  say,  "So  ist  die  Sache  vor 
sich  gegangen  "  we  may  intend  to  speak  of  an  occurrence 
yet  to  be  related  or  of  one  that  has  already  been  told. 
The  pronouns  der,  dieser  and  jener  have,  likewise,  this 
character.  Their  original  use  was  to  designate  objects  to 
which  attention  could  be  called  by  a  gesture  ;  now  they 
are  often  employed  to  refer  mentally  either  to  what  pre- 
cedes or  to  what  follows.  Some  particles  point  both  for- 
wards and  backwards  at  the  same  time ;  for  example, 
those  that  imply  concession  or  contradiction  or  limitation. 
All  these  are  words  that  in  the  first  place  conveyed  the 
idea  of  acquiescence  or  solemn  assurance,  such  as  gewisz, 
allerdings,ja,  wohl,  freilich,  ja  freihch  and  zwar,  M.  H.  G. 
ze  ware,  i.  e.,  in  Wahrheit.  Entweder  and  weder  refer 
only  to  what  follows :  the  former  is  developed  from  ein 
weder,  '  one  of  two.'  If  we  say,  "er  wollte  entweder  siegen 
oder  sterben"  we  imply  a  choice  between  victory  or  death. 
Weder  is  referable  to  ne-weder:  "  weder  heisz  noch  kalt" 
originally  signified  '  neither  of  the  two,  hot  or  cold.'  The 
third  personal  pronoun,  er,  sie,  es,  refers  exclusively  to 
what  has  gone  before;  in  German  its  office  is  always 


A  History  of  the  German  Language  277 

conjunctive  except  when  it  takes  the  place  and  performs 
the  functions  of  the  first  and  second  personal  pronoun. 
Aber  and  sondern  also  point  in  the  same  direction.  The 
former  originally  meant  nochmals.  It  often  occurs  when 
one  person  repeats  the  act  of  another  or  when  he  speaks 
after  another  has  spoken,  that  he  is  moved  by  the  spirit 
of  opposition.  This  idea  is  prominent  in  a  number  of 
words  and  phrases ;  entgegnen  (go  against  or  toward)  is 
equivalent  to  antworten ;  Wortwechsel  (exchange  of  words) 
is  simply  Zank.  Similarly,  we  sometimes  hear  the  re- 
mark in  English,  "  I  do  not  wish  to  have  any  words  with 
you,"  meaning,  "  I  do  not  wish  to  quarrel  with  you,"  while 
altercate  and  altercation  differ  little  etymologically  from 
alternate  and  alternation.  Sondern  is  plainly  related  to 
besonders  and  signifies  ausgenommen,  which  is  precisely 
'  excepted,'  i.  e.,  except.  It  is  probable  that  these  words 
did  not  originally  indicate  opposition  or  contradiction  in 
its  full  sense,  but  rather  a  denial  of  the  general  validity  of 
a  judgment,  while  admitting  its  applicability  to  certain 
cases:  nur  das  ist richtig  (only  this  is  correct)  and  das aber 
istrichtig  (but  this  is  correct)  mean  about  the  same  thing. 
It  is,  accordingly,  from  words  of  this  class  that  the  great 
majority  of  subordinate  conjunctions  has  been  gradually 
evolved.  If  we  trace  dasz  to  its  origin  we  shall  find  that 
it  primarily  belongs,  not  to  the  subordinate  sentence  which 
it  introduces  but  to  the  principal  sentence  to  which  it  is 
attached.  Ich  weisz  dasz  er  lebt  really  means  Ich  weisz 
dasz :  er  lebt.  Putting  this  into  English,  '  I  know  that  he 
lives '  is  equivalent  to  '  I  know  that :  he  lives ;'  so  the  fact 
above  given  is  equally  true  of  both  languages.  The  con- 
junction ehe  was  originally  used  as  a  reflexive  adverb  in 
subordinate  clauses,  at  least  when  it  follows  a  negative 
clause.  Ich  kehre  ntcht  heim  ehe  ich  ihn  finde  points  to  an 
earlier  stage  of  the  language  when  this  expression  meant, 
ich  kehre  mcht  heim:  ehe  (yorher]  finde  ich  ihn  (lit.  I  return 
not :  ere  I  shall  find  him).  The  situation  is  somewhat  difier- 


278  A  History  of  the  German  Language 

ent  in  the  case  of  an  affirmative  sentence.  In  the  older  lan- 
guage it  was  followed  by  a  subordinate  clause  having  its 
verb  in  the  subjunctive.  Christ's  address  to  Peter  is  du 
lougenst  niin,  e  danne  der  han  kraeje  (du  verleugnest  mich, 
ehe  dann,  etc.).  Subordinating  one  sentence  to  the  other 
we  should  probably  have  du  verleugnest  mich  vorher,  dann 
wird  (or  dann  mag)  der  Hahn  krdhen.  We  have  already 
called  attention  to  the  fact  that  it  is  reasonable  to  assume 
a  twofold  origin  for  the  relative  pronoun  der.  The  trans- 
formation of  independent  sentences  into  subordinate  ones 
will  be  more  readily  understood  if  we  bear  in  mind  that 
the  order  of  words  now  characteristic  of  the  latter  was,  at 
one  time,  also  admissible  in  the  former.  The  develop- 
ment of  certain  conjunctions  can  not  be  comprehended  if 
we  start  from  sentences  consisting  of  two  members ;  they 
must  have  required  three  or  more.  "Da  Herodes  sah,  dasz 
er  betrogen  war,  ward  er  zornig,"  (Matt,  ii.,  16)  would 
have  been  stated  co-ordinately,  da  sah  Herodes,  dasz  er 
belrogen  war;  er  ward  zornig,  in  which  case  da  at  the 
beginning  pointed  to  what  had  just  previously  been  re- 
lated. The  causal  nun  may  be  similarly  explained.  Nun 
dem  so  ist,  so  wollen  wir,  must  have  originally  been  nun  ist 
dem  so,  so  wollen  wir ;  in  which  case  nun  must  have  been 
preceded  by  another  sentence.  A  similar  origin  must  be 
assigned  to  sett,  indent,  nachdem,  the  last  two  having  been 
evolved  so  recently  as  the  N.  H.  G.  period. 

There  is,  nevertheless,  a  class  of  conjunctions  now  used 
to  introduce  subordinate  sentences  that  were  never  used 
with  such  as  were  co-ordinate.  In  fact  they  can  hardly  be 
called  conjunctions  at  all  and  perform  the  office  of  connec- 
tives owing  to  the  somewhat  fortuitous  circumstance  that 
they  were  used  to  introduce  sentences  that  were  afterward 
relegated  to  a  subordinate  relation.  Here  belong  pri- 
marily the  pronouns  employed  to  introduce  subordinate 
clauses.  Er  fragt  was  vorgeht  has  grown  out  of  er  fragt: 
was  geht  vor.  The  conjunction  ob  (Eng.  ef,  if)  was  em- 


A  History  of  the  German  Language  279 

ployed  in  the  older  German,  not  only  to  introduce  an  in- 
terrogative clause,  but  also  in  the  sense  of  wenn.  Both 
meanings  have  been  developed  from  the  same  primary 
concept :  ob  was,  probably,  in  the  first  place  an  adverb 
with  the  sense  of  vielleicht,  etwa.  Wenn  du  Gott  bist,  so 
sage  es  uns  (  M.  H.  G.  obe  du  got  bist)  is  substantially 
equivalent  to  vielleicht  bist  du  Gott ;  so  sage  es  uns,  which 
in  turn  does  not  differ  much  from,  sage  uns,  ob  du  Gott  bist 
( tell  us  if  thou  art  God  ).  On  the  other  hand  ob  in  the 
compounds  obgleich,  obschon,  obwohl  do  not  refer  directly  to 
the  meaning  of  the  adverb,  but  their  concessive  significa- 
tion has  been  gradually  evolved  out  of  the  conditional.  A 
similar  course  of  development  can  be  traced  in  auch  wenn, 
wenn  auch,  wenn  gleich  and  wenn  schon.  The  conjunction 
geschwetge  dasz  is  unique.  Geschweige  is,  in  the  first  in- 
stance, an  entire  sentence  represented  by  the  first  person 
singular  of  the  obsolete  verb  geschweigen  and  ich  schweige 
davon,  dasz,  etc.  (lit.  I  am  silent  thereof  that).  In  like 
manner  we  hear  the  colloquial  "  let  alone ''  used,  as,  "  I 
am  not  able  to  keep  myself,  let  alone  pay  my  debts." 

The  latest  of  all  the  parts  of  speech  to  develop  its  cur- 
rent use  was  the  article.  During  the  Indo-Eur.  period  it 
had  no  existence  ;  nor  is  it  found  in  the  Latin,  or  the 
older  Greek,  or  the  Anglo-Saxon.  The  Gothic  has  a  defi- 
nite but  no  indefinite  article,  or  rather,  the  demonstrative 
pronoun  is  often  used  as  a  definite  article  ;  and  we  see 
here  as  in  the  Greek  the  intimate  relation  between  the 
two  classes  of  words.  The  O.  H.  G.  uses  the  indefinite  ar- 
ticle, but  it  does  not  occur  earlier.  Det  Mann  was  at  first 
equivalent  to  jener  Mann  ( iste  homo )  who  was  either 
spoken  of  before  or  who  is  soon  to  be  mentioned.  Grad- 
ually it  came  to  be  used  to  designate  some  object  well 
known  to  the  hearer  or  reader.  The  indefinite  article  is 
no  more  and  no  less  than  the  numeral  ein  and  does  not 
differ  much  from  it  in  usage.  There  is  one  sense,  how- 
ever, in  which  the  article  came,  in  the  course  of  time,  to 


280  -A  History  of  the  German  Language 

be  employed  which  it  did  not  have  originally,  and  that  is 
as  a  disjunction,  if  it  be  admissible  to  coin  a  word  upon 
the  model  of  conjunction  and  meaning  its  opposite.  It 
often  indicates  that  the  object  to  which  it  relates  has  no 
connection  with  what  has  just  preceded. 

Grammarians  usually  place  the  interjection  last  on  the 
list  of  the  parts  of  speech.  They  are,  in  fact,  not  so  much 
single  words  as  entire  sentences.  Au!  means  'you  hurt 
me'  and  ah!  is  equivalent  to  '  how  fine  that  is.'  Interjec- 
tions are,  accordingly,  to  be  regarded  as  on  a  par  with  cer- 
tain important  words  which  are  often  taken  out  of  a  sen- 
tence to  represent  the  whole  sentence.  This  is  done 
when  the  remainder  may  easily  be  supplied.  Endlich, 
still,  traun  (M.  H.  G.  triuwen,  in  treuen,  in  Wahrheit) ,  ja  and 
nein  are  of  this  kind,  fa  (Eng.  yea)  probably  meant  at 
first  nothing  more  than  das  (ist  so),  just  like  the  Proven£al 
oc,  an  abbreviation  of  the  Latin  hoc,  which  is  used  in  the 
same  way.  Nein  is  equal  to  ni  ein  (not  one),  a  compound 
the  first  part  of  which  is  widely  represented  in  the  Indo- 
Eur.  languages  with  substantially  the  same  meaning  it 
has  in  German. 

THE   NOUN. 

The  Indo-European  language  had  the  four  cases  which 
at  present  belong  to  the  German,  but  in  addition  to  these 
a  vocative  and  ablative,  still  existing  in  the  Latin,  a  loca- 
tive and  an  instrumental.  The  two  last  disappeared  dur- 
ing the  primitive  Teutonic  stage  and  the  remaining  cases 
assumed  their  functions.  The  instrumental,  though  not 
found  in  the  Gothic,  has  left  some  traces  in  the  singular 
number  of  the  West  Germanic  dialects.  When  this  case 
also  disappeared  the  remainder  had  to  bear  an  additional 
burden.  Of  these,  however,  none  were  put  on  the  accus- 
ative ;  the  genitive  may  have  received  a  small  portion  of 
the  ablative ;  but  the  dative  became  a  sort  of  huge  reser- 
voir in  which  a  great  variety  of  meanings  collected.  An 


A  History  of  the  German  Language  281 

original  dative  exists  in  "  einem  etwas  geben;"  it  has  taken 
the  place  of  an  earlier  ablative  after  the  prepositions  aus 
and  von;  that  of  the  locative  in  connection  with  auf  and 
bet,  and  that  of  the  instrumental,  which  was  originally 
used  with  mit.  But  while  the  functions  of  some  of  the 
cases  were  enlarged  in  one  direction  they  were  curtailed  in 
another.  The  greatest  vicissitudes  befell  the  dative  and 
accusative.  By  means  of  the  dative  it  was  possible  dur- 
ing the  Indo-European  stage  to  express  various  local  rela- 
tions without  other  auxiliary  words.  But  as  the  several 
relations  indicated  by  the  cases  became  more  numerous, 
and  therefore  more  liable  to  confusion,  it  was  found  nec- 
essary to  employ  local  adverbs  in  connection  with  them  in 
order  to  mark  their  significance  more  sharply ;  and  these 
adverbs  in  the  course  of  time  became  prepositions.  In 
the  oldest  accessible  records  of  the  German  language  this 
process  was  nearly  completed,  the  instrumental  being 
virtually  the  only  case  that  could  be  used  without  the  aid 
of  a  preposition.  We  find,  for  example,  in  the  Heliand 
(see  p.  250)  the  phrases  frostu  bifangen  (with  frost  encircled), 
and  thurstu  endi  hungru  bithwungen  (with  thirst  and  hunger 
overcome).  The  accusative  occasionally  serves  a  similar 
purpose.  We  find  so  late  as  the  M.  H.  G.  er  fuor  wald 
unde  here  (fared  through  forest  and  mountain).  So  far  as 
we  are  able  to  follow  the  phenomenon  in  existing  records, 
it  is  chiefly  the  genitive  that  has  suffered  curtailment  of 
its  functions.  The  genitive  of  way  and  manner  fell  into 
desuetude  and  left  only  a  few  traces  in  certain  adverbial 
phrases  that  have  already  been  spoken  of.  While  in 
Luther's  time  it  was  still  correct  to  say  "  gebet  dem  Kaiser 
was  des  Kaiser  s  tst,  und  Gott  was  Gottes  ist "  (Matt,  xxii.,  21), 
we  should  now  have  to  render  the  same  passage  with  was 
dem  Kaiser,  was  Gott  zukommt,  gehort;  but  the  older  phras- 
eology is  preserved  in  such  expressions  as  *'  sind  Sie  des 
Teufels?"  Another  remnant  of  an  earlier  stage  of  the  lan- 
guage is  conserved  in  "sick  Rats  erholen,"  and  in  poetry 
19 


282  A  History  of  the  German  Language 

this  construction  is  still  now  and  then  found,  as,  '  'es  schenkte 
der  Bohme  des  perlenden  Wezns,"  where  the  genitive  is  used 
partitively.  We  recognize  an  archaic  coloring  in  the  use 
of  the  genitive  after  ermangeln  (lack),  erwahncn  (mention), 
geniessen  (partake  of,  enjoy),  instead  of  the  accusative.  In 
current  usage  the  German  says  ein  Glass  Wasscr,  ein  Stuck 
Brod  (or  Brot],  but  the  M.  H.  G.,  almost  like  the  Eng  of 
to-day,  has  ein  glas  wassers.  ein  stuck  brotes  (a  piece  of  bread, 
though  we  cannot  say  a  piece  bread's).  The  older  Eng.  is 
like  the  N.  H.  G.  and  we  find  in  Chaucer,  "  Gif  us  a 
busshel  whet,  or  malt,  or  reye."  In  both  these  cases  the 
syntactic  transition  may  be  traced  to  a  well  marked  cause, 
as  has  already,  in  part,  been  explained.  The  modern  pro- 
noun es  was  once  ez.  Its  genitive  was  es,  so  that  ich  bin  cs 
Salt,  es  miide  (tired  of  it)  corresponded  exactly  to  the  cur- 
rent Eng.  usage.  In  like  manner  etw as  gutes,  nichts  gutes^ 
represent  a  genitive  construction,  the  M.  H.  G.  being 
etewaz  guoles.  niht  schoenes,  the  nominative  being  guotez  and 
schoenez.  Toward  the  close  of  this  period  the  two  sounds 
s  and  z  coalesced  in  pronunciation.  The  genitive  and  ac- 
cusative cases  looked  and  sounded  alike,  besides  being 
identical  with  the  nominative  which  led  to  their  ultimately 
being  regarded  as  one.  There  were  other  circumstances 
under  which  the  genitive  could  not  be  distinguished  in 
form  from  the  nominative  and  accusative.  It  thus  came 
about  that  such  formulas  as  es  genieszen,  where  the  verb 
seemed  to  require  an  accusative  after  it,  were  taken  as 
models  for  das  Gluck  genieszen,  while  etwas  Brod,  ein  Stuck 
Brod  followed  etwas  gutes. 

The  genitive  has  almost  disappeared  from  the  modern 
German  dialects.  The  most  important  remnant  is  pre- 
served in  the  apparent  plurals  occurring  in  such  expres- 
sions as  Pfarrers  or  's  Pfarrers,  Miilltrs  or  's  Mutters, 
meaning  the  family  of  the  pastor,  the  miller  or  Miiller. 
In  Eng.  we  likewise  use  proper  names  in  the  possessive 
case,  the  word  '  house  '  or  '  residence  '  being  understood. 


A  History  of  the  German  Language  283 

Here  belong  also  the  apparent  adjectives  in  such  phrases 
as  Easier  Leckerli,  Munchner  Kindl,  Wiener  Wiirste.  These 
are  old  personal  genitives  plural,  and  the  above  named 
objects  are  in  reality  die  Leckerli  (  dainties )  der  Easier,  das 
Kindl  der  Munchener,  die  Wiirste  der  Wiener. 

These  combinations  take  us  back  to  a  time  when  it  was 
admissible  to  place  a  word  in  the  genitive  case  without 
the  article  before  the  substantive  which  it  limited.  The 
place  of  this  Gen.  has  in  most  cases  been  taken  by  the 
Dat.  with  the  preposition  von.  This  circumlocution,  ex- 
examples  of  which  occur  as  early  as  the  O.  H.  G.,  proba- 
bly has  its  origin  in  the  partitive  genitive.  Er  izzet  des 
brotes  and  er  izzet  von  dem  brote  differ  but  slightly,  if  at  all. 
After  usage  had  come  to  regard  the  expressions  as  equiva- 
lent the  latter  not  only  gradually  displaced  the  former,  but 
the  ablative  mode  came  into  vogue  even  where  no  action 
was  implied,  as  in  the  examples  cited  at  the  beginning  of 
this  paragraph.  The  general  tendency  of  all  languages 
toward  the  analytic  construction  may  also  have  had  its  in- 
fluence. The  genitive  was  further  displaced  by  a  kind  of 
possessive  dative  like  meinem  Vater  sein  Haus,  which 
hardly  differs  from  the  English,  "  B.  D.  his  book."  This 
is  a  genuine  old  dative,  and  it  was  originally  placed  close 
to  the  verb,  not  the  noun.  Instead  of  "meines  Vaters  Haus 
hat  er  gekauft"  it  is  proper  to  say  "  meinem  Vater  hat  er  sein 
Haus  abgekauft"  or  with  a  change  in  the  order  of  words, 
"  er  hat  meinem  Vater  sein  Haus  abgekauft^  in  which  case 
the  dative  stands  in  close  relation  to  the  following  sub- 
stantive, because  the  collocation  "  meines  Vaters  Haus  "  is 
in  the  mind  of  the  speaker  before  he  begins  the  sentence. 
After  the  same  model,  then,  such  expressions  as  "  er  hat 
meinem  Vater  sein  Haus  gekauftr  were  formed,  where  the 
dative  has  no  longer  any  relation  to  the  verb. 

Within  the  territory  of  the  L.  G.  dialects  there  is  evi- 
dent a  slight  tendency  to  displace  the  dative  and  put  in 
its  place  the  accusative  with  an.  This  is  common  in  the 


284  A  History  of  the  German  Language 

Dutch,  and  regular  in  the  Romance  languages,  where  the 
case-endings  of  the  noun  have  all  been  lost  and  their 
place  taken  by  a  modification  of  the  Latin  '  ad.' 

If  we  regard  the  endings  of  the  noun  with  reference 
to  their  case  meanings  there  is  no  difference  between  the 
substantive  and  the  adjective.  In  the  latter,  however,  not 
only  do  the  different  endings  correspond  to  the  different 
cases,  but  they  also  indicate  certain  special  shades  of  dif- 
ference in  signification  which  are  foreign  to  the  noun. 
The  terminations  of  the  adjective  are  divided  into  two 
classes  which,  like  those  of  the  noun,  are  designated  as 
strong  and  weak  respectively :  besides  which  they  are  also 
used  without  inflection.  The  weak  endings  have  a  defi- 
nite signification — in  other  words  they  assign  the  quality 
or  property  which  they  imply,  to  a  definite  object ;  they 
are  accordingly  preceded  by  the  definite  article  or  some 
related  pronoun.  The  strong  endings,  on  the  other  hand, 
designate  qualities  appertaining  to  an  object  which  is  not 
definitely  limited,  and  they  are,  therefore,  used  with  the 
indefinite  article  or  some  similar  word.  Guter  Wein  (good 
wine),  means  wine  possessing  a  certain  quality,  but  leaves 
it  unlimited  in  every  other  way.  "Du  liast  den  guten  Wan 
bisher  behalten,"  makes  the  quality  or  property  of  the  wine 
prominent  in  contrast  with  other  wine  then  and  there 
present.  The  uninflected  form  is  neuter  and  can  be  used 
in  either  sense.  At  present  it  is  only  used  as  a  predicate. 
But  this  has  not  always  been  the  case,  and  there  was  a 
stage  of  the  German  language  when  the  uninflected  ad- 
jective might  be  employed  attributively  :  it  could  be  placed 
after  the  noun  as  is  still  done  in  archaisms  like  Roslein 
rot,  or  between  the  article  and  the  substantive,  as  ein  guot 
kind,  ein  wilt  swln.  This  fact  will  explain  why  the  Ger- 
man language  contains  so  many  composites  of  which  the 
first  member  is  an  adjective,  such  as  Gelbsc/mabel,  Griin- 
specht,  Rundkopf,  etc.  Conversely,  the  strong  form  of  de- 
clension was  also  used  in  the  predicate  during  the  O.  H. 


A  History  of  the  German  Language  285 

G..  period,  as  das  glas  ist  voiles,  (das  Glas  ist  volt),  and  as  an 
attributive  when  it  followed  the  noun  :  ein  Glas  voll  Was- 
ser  might  be  put  ein  glas  voiles  wazzers  in  the  M.  H.  G. 
This  condition  of  things  seems  to  explain  the  singular  M. 
H.  G.  phrase,  eine  schiissel  voller  kirschen,  and  the  like. 
Here  voller  is  the  original  nominative  of  the  masculine  sin- 
gular, so  that  it  would  have  been  quite  correct  to  say  ein 
tisck  voller  kirschen  (plenus  cerisiaram).  When  this  postpo- 
sition was  no  longer  admissible,  the  idea  began  to  prevail 
that  such  words  as  voller -in  combinations  of  this  kind  were 
genitives  and  they  are  accordingly  at  present  used  after 
substantives  of  all  genders,  and  in  both  the  singular  and 
the  plural.  The  same  fate  befell  the  old  nomitives  halber 
and  selber,  both  of  which  are  now  employed  adverbially  in 
nearly  all  cases. 

THE  VEKB. 

When  we  come  to  a  study  of  the  forms  of  the  verb  we 
find  the  most  important  to  be  those  which  designate  the 
time  and  mode  of  action  or  being.  We  discover  here  the 
same  phenomena  to  which  we  called  attention  in  the  dis- 
cussion of  the  noun  :  expansion  and  contraction  of  mean- 
ing go  hand  in  hand  in  the  two  parts  of  speech.  The 
Indo-European  tongue  had  not  less  than  four  or  five  differ- 
ent tense-forms,  present,  future  (or  imperfect),  aorist,  and 
perfect.  The  German,  however,  has  and  always  had  but 
two  tenses  to  represent  the  variety  exhibited  in  the  parent 
speech,  the  present  and  the  preterit.  In  its  earliest  stage 
the  present  united  the  significations  of  the  present  and 
the  future ;  though  it  could  not,  as  is  now  the  case,  be 
employed  in  historical  narration.  As  early  as  the  O.  H. 
G.  period  the  need  began  to  be  felt  of  some  method  by 
which  the  future  could  be  more  distinctly  marked.  The 
verb  sollen  in  connection  with  the  infinitive  was  accord- 
ingly employed  for  this  purpose  :  ich  seal  lesen  being  equiv- 
alent to  ich  werde  lesen.  This  mode  of  indicating  futurity 


286  A  History  of  the  German  Language 

is  still  used  in  the  English  which  has  retained  it  from 
Anglo-Saxon  times  where  zc  sceal  Jesen  is  the  exact  formal 
equivalent  of  'I  shall  read.'  An  event  that  was  about  to 
happen  was  designated  by  a  mode  of  speech  that  indicated 
its  desirability ;  as  a  rule  the  cause  was  put  for  the  antici- 
pated effect.  At  the  close  of  the  M.  H.  G.  period  there 
came  into  use  another  circumlocution  that,  to  some  extent, 
embodies  the  element  of  futurity,  that  is,  werden  was  used 
in  connection  with  the  participle.  It  was  just  as  proper  to 
say  er  wirt  sehende  as  er  wirtalt.  Hence  arose  the  modern 
mode  of  speech.  But  it  did  not  grow  out  of  abscission  of 
the  participial  ending,  for  other  conditions  had  led  to  the 
belief  that  the  participial  and  the  infinitive  could  properly 
be  employed,  one  for  the  other.  There  is  hardly  a  dis- 
tinguishable difference  between  er  gat  suochende  m  er  kumt 
bitende  and  er  gat  suochen  or  er  kumt  biten  (he  goes,  comes 
to  seek,  in  order  to  seek,  for  the  purpose  of  seeking). 
When  the  present  tense,  after  passing  through  this  course 
of  development,  had  come  to  be  somewhat  familiarly  em- 
ployed to  designate  futurity,  it  was  easy  to  extend  its  newly 
gained  elasticity  still  further  and  use  it  in  reference  to  past 
events.  We,  accordingly,  find  it  in  the  service  of  histor- 
ical narration  from  the  fifth  century  onward,  when  the 
writer's  object  is  to  bring  an  occurrence  before  the  mind 
of  the  hearer  with  the  greatest  possible  vividness.  And 
it  may  be  remarked  that  the  German  shares  this  use  of 
the  present  in  common  with  most  other  cultivated  lan- 
guages. The  preterit,  which  in  respect  of  form,  corre- 
sponded to  the  Indo-European  perfect,  represented  in  the 
earliest  stage  the  imperfect,  the  aorist  and  the  perfect  of 
the  Indo-European.  But  ever  since  the  earliest  period  it 
began  to  lose  the  signification  which  it  had  originally,  and 
combinations  of  sein  and  haben  with  the  preterit  participle 
are  used  to  designate  the  present  perfect,  i.  e.,  the  comple- 
tion of  an  action.  The  circumlocution  with  sein  is  entirely 
clear :  ich  bin  gekommen  (I  am  come)  is  equivalent  to  ich 


A  History  of  the  German  Language  287 

bin  ein  gekommener  (I  am  one  who  has  come).  That  with 
haben,  as  we  find  it  to-day,  is  not  in  all  cases  equally  prim- 
itive. At  first  haben  could  only  be  used  with  verbs  that 
might  be  put  in  the  passive  voice.  Er  hat  ihn  gefunden 
meant  er  hat  ihn,  besitzt  ihn  als  ein  gefundener  (he  has  him, 
possesses  him  as  one  who  has  been  found) — the  reason  of 
the  possession  being  generally  an  antecedent  act  of  finding. 
It  thus  came  about  that  er  hat  gefunden  might  be  regarded 
as  substantially  equivalent  to  erfand  and  upon  this  model 
might  be  framed  er  hat  geschlafen  like  erschlief.  Modern 
German  dialects  have  still  further  limited  the  use  of  the 
preterit :  in  all  those  belonging  to  South  Germany  it  is 
found  only  in  the  subjunctive  mood.  In  the  indicative 
the  compound  forms  with  sein  and  haben  are  exclusively  em- 
ployed. Accordingly,  the  illiterate  do  not  say  ich  ging\>\& 
tch  bin  gegangen,  nor  ich  asz  but  ich  habe  gegessen.  The  be- 
ginning of  this  usage  is  about  coeval  with  that  of  the  his- 
torical present  and  must  be  assigned  to  the  second  half  of 
the  fifteenth  century.  So  far  as  the  use  of  the  different 
tense-forms  is  concerned  it  makes  no  difference  whether 
the  verb  is  in  the  principal  or  the  subordinate  clause.  But 
the  case  is  different  when  we  come  to  consider  the  moods 
of  the  verbs  as  they  are  at  present  employed.  It  will  be 
remembered  that  the  subordination  of  one  sentence  to 
another  is,  in  a  sense,  a  modern  innovation  and  that  in 
the  primitive  state  of  language  co-ordination  alone  pre- 
vailed. It  would  accordingly  be  supposed  that  the  signifi- 
cation of  a  mood  would  be  the  same  in  either  the  princi- 
pal or  the  subordinate  clause.  The  facts  are,  however* 
against  this  theory.  In  the  first  place,  certain  usages  that 
prevailed  in  independent  sentences  have  passed  out  of 
currency  in  dependent  sentences ;  and  in  the  second,  we 
find  that  now,  as  always,  a  certain  mood  may  be  used  in  a 
dependent  sentence  where  it  was  never  employed  in  inde- 
pendent sentences.  It  is  probably  owing  to  the  force  of 


288  A  History  of  the  German  Language 

analogy  that  the  subjunctive  was  sometimes  used  as  a  sign 
of  formal  dependence  in  cases  where  the  intent  of  the 
sentence  intrinsically  required  the  indicative.  Strictly 
speaking,  the  German  language  has  but  two  moods,  the 
indicative  and  the  subjunctive ;  for  the  imperative  ought 
properly  to  be  classed  with  interjections  while  the  infini- 
tive and  the  participle  are  nouns.  (See,  for  a  full  treatment 
of  this  part  of  Grammar,  Jolly,  Gesch.  des  Infinitivs). 
The  subjunctive  corresponds  formally  to  the  Greek  opta- 
tive :  er  grabe  is  grabai  in  Gothic,  and  ypd<J>oi  in  Greek  ;  but 
it  embraces  in  its  application  both  the  Greek  subjunctive 
and  optative.  As,  however,  the  Indo-European  optative 
had  two  different  significations,  one  of  wishing  and  one  of 
supposition  or  expectation,  the  German  subjunctive  may 
properly  be  said  to  have  three.  The  optative  of  wishing, 
however,  corresponds  very  nearly  to  the  hortative  subjunc- 
tive and  may  be  regarded  as  one  with  it,  more  especially 
as  in  German  a  well  defined  line  of  separation  between 
the  two  can  not  be  drawn.  Over  against  this  we  may 
place  as  distinctly  marked  the  optative  of  supposition. 
The  hortatory  subjunctive  and  the  subjunctive  of  wishing 
may  stand  either  in  dependent  or  independent  sentences : 
er  gehe  (let  him  go),  gebe  Gott  (God  grant),  kdme  er  dock  (O 
that  he  would  come).  Its  most  frequent  use  is  with  verbs 
of  wishing  and  commanding,  ich  befehle,  dasz  ergehe.  Its 
use  in  such  cases  was  originally  imperative  without  excep- 
tion. Now,  however,  the  indicative  is  frequently  used, 
especially  in  the  present  tense,  ich  iviinsche,  dasz  er  geht; 
ich  wiinschte,  dasz  et  ginge.  We  see  here  the  influence  of 
analogy  as  exhibited  in  such  constructions  as  ich  hore,  sehe, 
weisz,  dasz  er  kommt.  We  have  shown  how  combinations 
like  ich  wiinsche,  dasz  er  gehe,  where  one  sentence  is  sub- 
ordinated to  the  other,  have  been  developed  from  two  sen- 
tences that  were  originally  co-ordinate :  i.  e.,  from  ich 
wiinsche  das — er  gehe  (I  wish  that — what?  he  would  go). 
Again,  those  forms  of  construction  that  are  without  the 


A  History  of  the  German  Language  289 

conjunction  may  be  traced  to  the  subjunctive  of  wishing 
or  exhortation.  Kdme  er,  er  ware  willkommen  points  to  an 
earlier  combination,  kdme  er  (doc/i):  er  ware  willkommen 
(would  he  but  come,  he  would  be  welcome).  We  have 
also  seen  that  conditioiiaj  sentences  are  nearly  related  to 
concessive  as,  sei  dem  auch  so,  icJi  bleibe  dabei,  an  expression 
that  might  be  divided  into,  sei  dem  auch  so,  ich  bleibe  dabci 
(even  if  that  be  so,  I  stick  to  my  statement).  A  remark- 
able fact  is  thrust  under  our  notice  in  the  study  of  these 
examples,  viz.,  the  slight  difference  existing  between  the 
meaning  of  the  subjunctive  present  and  the  subjunctive 
past.  One  would  naturally  expect  to  find,  in  the  first  case, 
some  distinct  reference  to  the  present,  and  in  the  second, 
to  the  past.  But  it  seems  probable  that  neither  in  the 
Indo-European,  nor  in  the  Germanic  was  such  a  distinc- 
tion of  time  made,  between  the  present  subjunctive  (or 
optative)  and  the  perfect.  The  presumptive  signification 
of  the  potential  optative  is  clearly  seen  in  hypothetical 
sentences.  Here  we  find  regularly  the  subjunctive  preterit 
with  distinct  reference  to  present  time,  not  only  in  the 
principal,  but  also  in  the  subordinate  sentence,  as,  ich 
konnte  es  thnn;  ich  weisz,  dasz  er  es  thun  konnte.  Curiously 
enough  we  find  the  hypothetical  subjunctive  also  used  oc- 
casionally in  sentences  that  contain  no  element  of  the  con- 
ditional. For  example,  the  German  will  say,  upon  arriv- 
ing at  a  certain  place,  "da  wdren  wir"  In  such  cases  the 
underlying  thought  seems  to  be,  "da  sind  wir ;  es  ware 
schon,  wenn  wir  schon  weiter  wdren ;"  nevertheless  it  must 
be  confessed  that  this  explanation  is  not  entirely  satisfac- 
tory. The  sentence  in  its  entirety  being  in  the  mind  of 
the  speaker  or  writer  before  he  begins  to  express  it,  the 
conditional  part  presses  forward,  as  we  may  say,  for  utter- 
ance, thus  making  its  impress  on  the  strictly  affirmative 
portion.  We  may  notice  a  similar  phenomenon  in  such 
English  expressions  as  "  I  don't  think  he  will  do  it ;  He 
is  not  expected  to  live,"  where  the  thought  plainly  is,  I 
think  he  will  not  do  it ;  He  is  expected  not  to  live. 


290  A  History  of  the  German  Language 

The  potential  subjunctive  in  the  present  tense  is  now 
employed  only  in  conditional  expressions — in  dependent 
affirmative  and  interrogative  sentences.    Er  glaubt  dass  es 
heisz  set;  er  fragt  ob  es  heisz  sei  may  be  traced  to,  er  glaubt, 
es  sei  wohl  heisz ;  er  fragt — ist  es  vielleicht  heisz  f  In  the  old- 
est German  er  sei  might  be  used  in  independent  sentences 
with  the  meaning,  er  ist  wohl  (he  probably  is).     We,  how- 
ever, find  the  subjunctive  of  the  present  tense  used  indis- 
criminately with  that  of  the  preterit  without  difference  of 
meaning.     In  the  High  German,  the  subjunctive  of  the 
present  is  on  the  whole  to  be  preferred :  though  that  of 
the  preterit  is  always  to  be  preferred  where  the  present 
subjunctive  is  not  plainly  to  be  distinguished  from  the  in- 
dicative, as  is  the  case  in  all  the  forms  of  the  plural.     We 
accordingly  find  er  sagt  or  sagte,  sie  hdtten  das  Fieber,  but 
er  habe  das  Fieber,  more  rarely  er  hdtte  das  Fteber.     This 
variation    is    not   found   in    the    dialects,    the    Low   and 
Middle    German,    as    well    as   the   Franconian    and    the 
Austrian  using  the  preterit  subjunctive ;  the  Alemanian 
and  the   Bavarian,  the  present.     Both  the  variations  in 
High  German  and  the  more  consistent  usage  of  the  dia- 
lects are  to  be  traced  to  an  older  invariable  rule,  the  so- 
called  CONSECUTIO  TEMPORUM  which  we  still  find  in  the 
Latin  :  when  the  principal  sentence  is  in  the  present  tense 
the  subordinate  sentence  should  be  in  the  same   tense, 
but   if    the   principal    sentence    is    in    the    preterit    the 
subordinate  sentence  should  be  in  the  same — er  waenet, 
ez  si,  but,  er  wante,  ez  waere  (putat  sit,  putavit  esset).     In 
order  to  fully  comprehend  this  rule  one  should  keep  in 
mind  the   origin   of   independent   sentences  in   general. 
What  is  called  ORATIO  OBUQUA  has  no  existence  in  popu- 
lar speech.     The  unlettered  rustic  relates  an  occurrence 
reported  to  him  by  another  as  if  it  were  matter  of  his  own 
observation.     And  this  is  true  not  only  of  the  German  but 
probably  of  all  languages.     When  Paris  is  represented  in 
the  Iliad  as  declaring  his  willingness  to  restore  all  the 


A  History  of  the  German  Language  291 

treasures  which  he  carried  away  from  Argos,  the  message 
which  announces  this  to  the  Achseans  reads :  "  Priam 
directs  me  to  announce  to  you  the  decision  of  Paris ;  he 
will  restore  everything  that  he  has  brought  with  him  from 
Argos.''  If  we  take  a  sentence  like  the  following:  er 
bringt  Botschaft,  der  Kaiser  set  tot,  in  M.  H.  G.  it  would 
read,  er  bringet  maere,  daz  der  keiser  tot  si.  Translated 
into  more  primitive  German  we  should  have,  er  bringt 
Botschaft;  der  Kaiser  ist  tot,  putting  the  whole  into  past 
time,  er  brahte  maere,  er  waere  tot  (er  brachte  Botschaft; 
der  Kaiser  war  tot}.  When,  then,  the  content  of  the 
message  was  expressed  in  suppositional  form,  the  poten- 
tial optative  took  the  place  of  the  indicative  present,  which 
as  we  have  seen  might  be  used  in  independent  sentences. 
After  the  pattern  er  bringet  maere,  er  s~i  tot,  the  subjunc- 
tive would  naturally,  in  the  course  of  time,  assume  the 
notion  of  past  time  and  er  brahte  maere,  er  was  tot  would 
become  er  brahte  maere,  er  waere  tot.  Such  being  evi- 
dently the  origin  of  dependent  sentences  we.  are  also  fur- 
nished with  an  explanation  of  the  somewhat  peculiar 
shifting  of  the  person  as  exhibited  in  the  pronouns  of 
these  sentences.  Take,  e.  g.,  the  statement  er  wuszte,  ich 
bin  krank,  which  becomes  er  wuszte,  er  waere  krank  and 
this  in  turn  may  be  traced  to  er  wuszte  es,  er  war  krank. 
This  fact  may  even  be  stated,  er  war  krank;  er  wuszte  es. 
The  old  German  rule  for  the  sequence  of  tenses  was  in 
vogue  until  the  fifteenth  century.  The  irregularity  in  its 
use  was  caused  by  the  historical  present  which  came  into 
currency  about  the  same  time.  Viewed  externally,  the 
present  must  needs  be  here  employed,  but  intrinsically  the 
preterit  alone  was  correct.  Though  originating  with  the 
historical  present  this  variation  in  usage  gradually  passed 
over  to  the  ordinary  present  and  from  this  again  to  the 
historical  preterit. 


292  A  History  of  the  German  Language 

PROPER  NAMES. 

From  the  stand-point  of  pure  theory  the  subject  of 
proper  names  has  no  claim  to  a  separate  chapter  in  the 
history  of  a  language.  Every  proper  noun  was  once  a 
common  substantive  or  adjective,  and  subject  to  the  same 
laws  of  formation  and  change  with  these.  Underlying 
the  roots  to  which  every  word  in  the  Indo-European  lan- 
guage can  be  traced  are  general  concepts  of  which  they 
are  the  visible  expression.  By  combination  and  by 
means  of  various  relational  suffixes  these  roots  have 
undergone  a  continual  limitation  of  meaning,  and  this 
process  is  still  in  operation.  While  the  number  of  gen- 
eral ideas  which  the  human  mind  is  capable  of  conceiving 
has  increased  little,  if  it  all,  since  the  earliest  period  of 
language  the  number  of  words  is  increasing  rapidly.  It 
is  evident,  therefore,  each  new  word  has  a  more  limited 
and  therefore  a  more  definite  meaning  than  any  that 
existed  before.  It  is  estimated  by  competent  authorities 
that  the  half  a  million  names  found  on  the  map  of  Ger- 
many have  been  formed  from  about  500  roots  by  combina- 
tions in  various  ways.  The  common  noun  in  its  transition 
to  a  proper  noun  simply  undergoes  a  restrictive  process 
like  that  explained  on  p.  1 56.  But  in  the  practical  appli- 
cation of  these  principles  there  are,  however,  certain 
peculiarities  that  are  more  or  less  inherent  in  the  nature 
of  proper  names  and  which  entitle  them  to  be  considered 
as  a  special  part  of  our  subject. 

NAMES  OF  PERSONS. 

The  modern  custom  of  giving  each  person  at  least  two 
names,  or  rather  of  assigning  to  him  a  name  in  addition  to 
that  which  he  gets  by  inheritance,  is  relatively  recent. 
The  ancient  Germans,  as  a  rule,  had  but  a  single  name ; 
and  this  was  somewhat  peculiarly  constituted  in  that  it 
was  always  a  compound  of  two  parts.  This  custom  pre- 


A  History  of  the  German  Language  293 

vailed  among  the  ancient  Greeks  and  may  be  safely  as- 
sumed to  have  originated  during  the  Indo-European 
period.  Those  qualities  that  were  considered  desirable  in 
a  man  or  that  graced  a  woman  were  given  to  the  child 
shortly  after  birth  as  a  sort  of  amulet  which  it  was  to 
wear  through  after  life.  Thus  Albert  or  Albrecht,  in  its 
O.  H.  G.  form  Adalbrecht,  is,  he  who  is  conspicuous  for 
nobility  ;  Gerbert,  designates  one  who  is  brilliant  with  the 
spear ;  Eckehart,  him  who  is  hard  with  the  edge  of  the 
sword,  ecke  meaning  edge  or  sword.  Friedrich  means  one 
who  is  powerful  in  peace  or  in  making  peace  ;  Gottschalk, 
God's  knight  or  servant,  and  Notburga  is  the  citadel,  the 
protection  in  time  of  need.  We  have  here  an  expression 
of  the  aspiration  of  parents  and  friends  similar  to  that  re- 
corded in  the  earlier  Old  Testament  names ;  as  when,  for 
instance,  Jacob  changed  the  name  of  his  latest  born, 
called  by  his  dying  mother  Ben-oni  (son  of  my  sorrow),  to 
Benjamin  (son  of  my  right  hand).  The  names  of  Abram, 
Sarai  and  Jacob  are  also  exchanged  for  or  transformed  into 
such  as  were  of  better  omen.  For  we  find  the  belief 
widely  prevalent  in  ancient  times  that  the  name  borne  by 
an  individual  had  more  or  less  influence  upon  his  subse- 
quent destiny,  a  belief  that  the  Romans  embodied  the 
alliterative  phrase  "  bonum  nomen,  bonum  omen." 

A  certain  class  of  persons  profess  to  experience  great 
delight  in  discovering  the  vigor  and  poetic  ring  concealed 
in  many  of  the  old  German  names.  Yet  it  is  doubtful 
whether  the  Germans  themselves  were  in  any  consider- 
able number  of  instances  conscious  of  the  poetry  in  their 
names — in  fact  it  is  well  nigh  certain  that  such  could  not 
have  been  the  case.  Generally  the  words  that  became 
component  parts  of  names  had  already  gone  out  of  use  in 
current  speech  and  could  therefore  have  no  significance 
for  the  nomenclator.  What  was  the  meaning  of  the  first 
part  of  Ingeborg  or  of  Ingraban  was  as  much  of  a  mys- 
tery to  the  Germans  of  historic  times  as  it  to  us  ;  nor  did 


294  A  History  of  the  German  Language 

they  know  that  the  part  of  such  names  as  Anselm,  Ansgar, 
Oswald  concealed  the  word  "god."  They  were  in  precisely 
the  same  relation  that  most  persons  of  the  present  day  are 
to  such  names  as  Isra-el,  Samu-el,  Dani-el,  Hanni-bal,  in 
which  the  name  of  the  deity  is  never  suspected.  On  the 
whole  it  must  be  said,  however,  that  the  ancient  Germans 
were  concerned  to  apply  their  names  with  some  reference 
to  their  sense. 

The  mode  of  procedure  was  probably  similar  to  that 
recorded  as  employed  by  the  ancient  Hebrews,  where 
such  proper  names  as  Eve  (Chavah),  Seth,  Moses,  and 
many  others,  are  said  to  have  been  given  with  direct  refer- 
ence to  the  ordinary  significance  of  these  words  in  the 
vocabulary  of  the  language.  In  German  names,  however, 
which,  unlike  the  Hebrew,  are  always  compounds,  we  find 
one  part  generally  significant ;  and  the  obscure  portion  is 
much  oftener  in  the  first  part  of  the  composite  than  in 
the  second.  The  second  part  of  a  compound  is  always  the 
chief  bearer  of  its  meaning.  It  may  happen  that  both 
the  component  parts  entering  into  a  proper  name  are 
words  still  current  in  the  living  language  and  yet  their 
signification  be  obscured  by  assimilation,  vowel  weaken- 
ing, or  some  other  change  to  which  the  simple  words 
have  not  been  subject.  A  transformation  of  this  kind 
may  be  seen  in  the  O.  H.  G.  names  whose  first  syllable  is 
Liut-  or  Leo-,  as  Liutpold  {Leopold}  and  Liuthold  (Leui- 
hold\  in  which  it  would  not  be  readily  noticed  that  they 
are  compounded  of  two  words,  meaning  respectively 
volkskuhn  and  volkswaltend.  Such  combinations  as  these 
may  properly  be  compared  with  Greek  names,  of  which 
the  first  element  is  Demo-,  as  Demosthenes,  Democritus, 
and  others.  It  may  happen,  also,  that  even  when  the  two 
parts  of  a  compound  are  etymologically  plain,  their  fusion 
will  make  no  sense  so  far  as  we  can  discover.  To  this 
list  belong,  e.  g.,  Wolfram,  O.  H.  G.  Wolfraban,  the 
meaning  of  which  would  be  Wolf-raven,  and  Htldegunde, 


A  History  of  the  German  Language  295 

of  which  the  first  part  signifies  Kampf  (combat),  and  the 
second,  the  same  thing.  It  is  a  difficult  matter  to  dis- 
cover any  sense  in  such  words.  Here  again  we  find 
parallel  instances  in  Greek  in  such  names  as  Lykourgos 
and  Lykomedes.  Rutland,  that  is,  Roland,  is  equivalent 
to  Ruhmesland  and  Kunigund  signifies  Geschlectskampf ; 
and  while  the  compounds  do  not  exactly  make  nonsense, 
it  is  hard  to  see  what  applicability  they  could  have  to  a 
person.  The  only  plausible  explanation  rests  in  the  fact 
already  referred  to,  that  the  simple  elements  were  no 
longer  clearly  understood  before  they  were  made  parts  of 
the  compound.  In  this  way  no  doubt  the  notion  began 
to  be  gradually  developed  that  it  was  of  little  importance 
for  a  name  to  be  entirely  significant,  and  that  it  was  suffi- 
cient when  a  new-formed  name  contained  at  least  one 
traditional  term.  But  there  was  one  thing  more.  No 
doubt  the  custom  existed  in  many  places  of  giving  the 
child  a  name  that  represented  in  its  component  elements 
both  that  of  the  father  and  the  mother.  It  might  happen 
in  this  way,  that  the  daughter  of  a  certain  Hildebrand, 
'  sword  of  battle  or  combat,'  and  of  a  woman  whose  name 
was  Gundrun  or  Gudrun,  '  sorceress  of  combat,'  would  be 
named  Hildegund.  Readers  of  Aristophanes  will  readily 
recall  the  scene  from  the  clouds  which  may  be  appropri- 
ately cited  here,  in  which  the  mother  insisted  on  calling 
her  first-born  son  Chanthippos  or  Charipposor  Kallipides, 
while  the  father  as  stoutly  held  out  for  Pheidonides,  until 
the  controversy  is  ended  by  adopting  a  name  made  up  of 
a  portion  of  two,  viz.,  Pheidippides.  It  is  also  evident 
from  an  examination  of  the  recorded  names  that  a  certain 
degree  of  phonetic  congruity  was  sought  after  in  the 
formation  of  compounds,  and  when  this  was  attained  the 
necessary  conditions  of  composition  were  supposed  to  be 
fulfilled.  In  a  mediaeval  story  a  certain  Engeltrut  is  said 
to  have  preferred  a  suitor  whose  name  was  Engelhard  to 
one  called  Dietrich,  for  the  reason  that  the  name  Engel- 


296  A  History  of  the  German  Language 

hard  and    Engeltrut  harmonized   better   than   Engeltrut 
and  Dietrich. 

The  great  majority  of  old  German  names  were  incon- 
venient for  daily  use  on  account  of  their  length.  They 
accordingly  experienced  the  same  fate  which  befell  nearly 
all  words  containing  a  considerable  number  of  syllables. 
In  such  names  as  Charlotte,  Elise  and  Johannes  or  Niko- 
laus,  which  in  familiar  usage  have  become  Lotte,  Lise, 
Hans  and  Klaus,  we  see  only  those  portions  retained  that 
are  made  prominent  by  the  accent.  These  abbreviated 
forms  which  we  may  call  pet-names  or  nick-names,  orig- 
inated in  one  of  two  ways :  sometimes  one  of  the  com- 
ponent parts,  usually  the  second,  was  dropped  entirely, 
the  remnant,  then  ending  either  with  the  vowel  -o  or  -i. 
In  this  way  Ingraban  became  Ingo,  Kuonrat  Kuno,  and 
Volcwart  Folko.  When  the  first  member  of  the  name  was 
a  derivative  noun  the  nick-name  likewise  lost  the  suffix. 
It  is  thus  that  Ebarhard  becomes  Ebaro,  Ebo ;  Irminrich 
appears  as  Irmino,  Irmo ;  while  Raginbald  is  abbreviated 
to  Ragano,  Rago.  The  termination  -i  is  still  very  common 
where  the  Alemanian  dialect  is  spoken,  Conrad  (or  Kon- 
rad},  the  Greek  ®pacru/3oiAos,  appearing  as  Kuoni,  Rudolf 
(hruotwolf,  Ruhmwolf)  as  Ruodi,  both  these  names,  together 
with  others  of  similar  structure  occurring  in  Schiller's 
well  known  drama,  Wilhelm  Tell ;  and  Walther  ( Waltend- 
Heer)  as  Walti.  It  is  not  safe,  however,  to  assert  with 
entire  confidence  that  the  last  name  represents  Walther, 
for  the  evident  reason  that  the  same  nick-name  may  be  an 
abbreviation  of  one  of  two  or  three  different  names. 
Gero,  e.  g.,  is  a  shortened  form  of  either  Gerbert  (speer- 
glanzend],  or  Gerhard  (speer-gewaltig],  or  Gernot  (speer- 
no(),  or  Gerwig  (speerkampf},  or  Gerwin  (speer-freund) ; 
but  it  is  not  always  possible  to  discover  which.  The  ori- 
gin of  nick-names  formed  by  the  second  process  is  less 
ambiguous.  Here  the  second  part  of  the  compound  is 
represented  in  the  abbreviation.  It  is  thus  that  Sigbald 


A  History  of  the  German  Language  297 

and  Sigbert  become  Sibo  (from  a  longer  form  Stgbo)  N. 
H.  G.  Seib ;  Sig fried  appears  as  Sigfo,  then  Siffo,  and 
Sigimar  or  Sigimund  is  shortened  to  Simo.  Into  all  these 
compounds  '  victory  '  enters  as  the  principal  element.  On 
the  basis  of  these  abbreviations  all  sorts  of  derivatives  are 
formed,  most  of  them  probably  having  a  diminutive  sig- 
nification. Those  having  the  suffix  -in  and  -ilo  are  dis- 
tributed all  over  Germany  ;  those  ending  in  -iko  and  -izo 
or  -zo  are  confined  chiefly  to  Lower  and  Upper  German 
territory  respectively.  Double  derivatives  in  -ilin,  -ltkoy 
-ikin,  -ztlo,  -ziko,  and  -zilin,  also  occur.  The  word  diot 
meaning  'people,'  'populace,'  appears  in  many  compounds 
of  which  the  most  common  modern  representatives  are 
Diedel,  Tilly,  Tiedge,  Tieck,  Deecke,  Dietze,  Dietz,  and 
others.  It  will  readily  occur  to  the  reader  that  many 
abbreviated  forms  of  proper  names  are  still  in  daily  use, 
such  as  Fritz  for  Friedrich,  Heintz  for  Heinrich,  Kuntz  for 
Konrad,  Utz  for  Ulrich,  and  many  others. 

The  names  we  have  thus  far  considered  are  easily  trace- 
able to  a  purely  German  source ;  but  with  the  introduc- 
tion of  Christianity  came  a  flood  of  names  of  diverse  ori- 
gin. The  appellations  of  the  saints  who  appear  in  the 
calendar — and  it  needs  to  be  remembered  that  every  week 
day  of  the  year  was  sacred  to  one  or  another  of  them — 
undergo  abbreviation  like  all  others.  Sometimes  they 
appear  as  diminutives,  sometimes  as  nick-names.  It  thus 
happens  that  a  single  name  becomes  the  ancestor  of  a 
numerous  progeny,  as,  e.  ^.,  Johannes,  some  of  the  descend- 
ants of  which  are  Johann,  John,  Jan,  Hannes,  Hans  and 
Hansel;  while  Jacob  (Latin  Jacobus)  is  represented  by 
Jack,  Jaggi,  Jock,  Jockel,  Kob,  K'obel  and  Kobi.  The  two 
names  Johann  Jacob  which  are  often  borne  by  the  same 
person,  especially  in  S.  Germany,  are  abbreviated  in 
Basel  to  Beppi. 

The  custom  of  having  but  one  name  prevailed  in  Ger- 
many until  the  Mediaeval  period.  The  modern  practice 
20 


298  A  History  of  the  German  Language 

of  giving  two  or  more  names  is  closely  connected  with  the 
rise  of  cities,  the  growth  of  civil  liberty,  with  the  exten- 
sion of  trade  and  travel  and  the  frequency  of  contracts 
between  buyer  and  seller.  Double  names  appear  first  in 
the  cities,  whence  they  spread  into  the  surrounding  coun- 
try, first  of  all  in  the  cities  along  the  Rhine  and  in  South 
Germany.  For  it  will  be  remembered  that  the  cities  of 
Germany  owe  their  existence  primarily  to  Roman  in- 
fluence, the  Germans  themselves  being  naturally  adverse 
to  living  in  close  proximity.  Accordingly  where  this 
influence  was  but  little  felt  the  cities  are  of  much  later 
growth.  Within  the  first  named  territory  we  meet  with 
double  names  as  early  as  the  twelfth  century,  while  in 
Middle  and  North  Germany  they  do  not  begin  to  occur 
till  the  thirteenth  and  fourteenth  centuries.  In  many 
localities  the  serfs  seem  to  have  been  content  with  a 
single  name  until  the  sixteenth  century.  The  Frisians, 
who  dwell  in  the  northern  Provinces  of  Holland,  and  the 
Jews,  were  constrained  by  legal  enactments  so  lately  as 
during  the  present  and  the  last  century,  to  conform  fully 
to  modern  usage  in  the  matter  of  proper  names.  It  is 
owing  to  this  fact  that  nearly  all  the  Jews  in  the  United 
States,  who  are  for  the  most  part  immigrants  from  Ger- 
many, have  German  and  not  Jewish  names.  When  the 
custom  of  double  names  came  into  vogue  the  tradi- 
tional German  and  foreign  appellations  were  adopted  as 
baptismal  names.  What  we  now  call  family  names  are  of 
multifarious  origin,  and  stand  in  some  degree  in  contrast 
to  the  other,  earlier  names.  Those  are  for  the  most  part 
of  native  creation  and  given  to  the  child  by  its  relatives ; 
these  are  in  the  main  the  creation  of  strangers.  Within 
the  family  circle  there  is  even  now  little  need  of  any  other 
than  the  baptismal  name.  The  salient  characteristic  of  fam- 
ily names  is  the  fact  that  they  are  inherited  from  generation 
to  generation.  It  is  probable,  however,  that  in  former 
times  this  inheritance  did  not  follow  so  much  as  a  matter 


A  History  of  the  German  Language  299 

of  course  as  is  the  custom  in  our  day.  Indeed,  it  is  no 
uncommon  thing  for  people  to  change  their  family  names. 
This  is  of  especially  frequent  occurrence  among  the 
Germans  who  settle  in  the  United  States.  Sometimes 
the  original  name  is  translated,  sometimes  it  is  changed 
outright  by  authority  of  the  law-making  power  to  one 
more  agreeable  to  the  possessor,  but  more  frequently  it  is 
transformed  into  one  more  easily  pronounced  by  those  ac- 
customed only  to  the  use  of  the  English  language. 

Among  the  causes,  which  contributed  to  make  names 
hereditary,  that  of  location  was  perhaps  the  most  potent. 
In  the  Black  Forest,  for  example,  the  possessor  of  an 
estate  is  sometimes  known  by  the  name  it  bears  rather 
than  his  own.  It  may  thus  happen  that  two  successive 
occupants  are  called  by  the  same  name,  when  in  fact  they 
are  different.  Proper  names  derived  from  locality  are 
formed  in  two  ways:  either  a  preposition  is  prefixed  to 
the  designation  of  the  place,  or  the  termination  -er  is 
added.  By  the  first  method  we  get  such  names  as  Amthor 
(an  dem  Thor},  Aus*  m  Worth  (  Wert  signifying  island, 
peninsula,  any  low  land ),  Thorbeke  (equivalent  to  am  Bach}, 
Ambach,  Ueberweg,  von  der  Tann,  etc.  By  the  second,  such 
names  as  the  following  are  formed :  Steinberger,  Bar  en- 
thaler,  Sulzbacher,  etc.  To  this  class  belongs  the  long 
list  of  names  ending  in  -backer,  -hauser,  -hauser,  -hofer, 
-roder,  -renter,  and  many  others.  These  terminations  are 
all  significant  in  various  ways,  -r'dder,  -reiter  or  -reuter  sig- 
nifying the  dweller  at  a  place  where  a  clearing  has  been 
made,  and  -hofer,  one  who  occupies  an  estate.  Some- 
times the  designation  of  the  locality  is  simply  applied  to 
the  dweller  in  or  on  it,  without  prefix  or  suffix,  whence 
come  such  names  as  Steinthal,  Berg,  Stein,  Bach,  etc. 
These  have  their  exact  equivalents  in  our  English  Hills, 
Vales,  Brooks,  Stones  and  many  others  of  similar  origin. 

If  we  look  at  proper  names  with  reference  to  their 
source  we  shall  see  that  there  may  be  as  many  different 


300  A  History  of  the  German  Language 

classes  as  there  are  designations  of  localities.  One  of 
these  is  easily  misapprehended.  It  has  always  been  the 
custom  in  Germany  to  mark  inns  and  drug-stores  with 
some  sign  or  device  by  which  each  may  be  known  from 
every  other.  During  the  Middle  Ages  this  custom  pre- 
vailed even  more  widely,  and  included  dwelling-houses,  as 
is  still  the  rule  to  some  extent  in  Switzerland.  These 
legends  were  plants  or  animals,  or  some  similar  object. 
The  inventor  of  printing  bore  the  name  Gensfleisch  from 
the  device  on  the  house  in  which  he  lived  or  was  born.  A 
person  having  the  name  Drach  (Eng.  Drake.  See  p.  — ), 
or  Ochs  would  not  be  so  called  because  such  a  designation 
was  suitable  to  his  mental  characteristics,  but  because  his 
house  bore  the  legend  of  a  dragon  or  an  ox,  or  because  he 
was  born  in  one  so  marked — for  it  must  be  remembered 
that  in  the  cities  the  dwellings  were  generally  large  enough 
to  contain  several  or  more  families,  and  built  close  to- 
gether for  purposes  of  defense.  Another  motive  for  trans- 
mitting a  name  from  father  to  son  and  grandson  arose 
from  the  fact  that  social  position  and  occupation  were  like- 
wise a  heritage  from  generation  to  generation.  To  this 
category  belong  the  names  of  most  frequent  occurrence. 
Such  as  Meyer  (Latin  major-domo),  Mutter,  Schmidt, 
Schneider.  We  find  the  same  fact  in  regard  to  the  English 
names,  the  most  common  of  which  are  Smith,  Carpenter, 
Taylor,  Miller  and  the  like.  Many  names  still  survive 
that  once  designated  the  users  of  trades  now  no  longer  in 
existence,  such  as  Bogner  (Bowman),  Falkner  (Falconer), 
Plattner  (a  maker  of  laminae  for  coats  of  mail,)  and  Pfeil- 
sticker  (one  who  made  shafts  for  arrows). 

But,  it  may  be  asked,  how  came  a  family  to  have  such  a 
name » as  Bischoff  (Bishop),  or  Herzog  (Duke),  or  Prince 
and  Pope?  To  this  query  we  may  reply  that  these  names 
are  in  part  due  to  the  devices  before  spoken  of,  and  in  part 
to  mediaeval  dramatic  performances  and  miracle-plays,  the 
chief  performers  in  which  would  often  continue  to  be 


A  History  of  the  German  Language  301 

known  during  the  remainder  of  their  lives  by  the  charac- 
ters they  represented.  In  other  cases  these  epithets  were 
doubtless  applied  to  persons  for  purely  fanciful  reasons, 
and  we  find  the  name  Rex  in  use  among  the  early  Romans. 
See  also  Horace,  Sat.  I.  7. 

Viewed  in  the  light  of  modern  usage  the  son  would  reg- 
ularly inherit  the  name  of  his  father  to  which  his  own 
would  be  added.  But  in  earlier  times  the  new-born  male 
child  received  the  name  of  the  grandfather  much  more 
frequently  than  that  of  the  father,  a  custom  that  likewise 
prevailed  in  ancient  Greece.  In  this  way  accordingly 
many  of  our  modern  baptismal  names  became  family 
names.  Sometimes  the  name  of  the  father  was  given  to 
the  son,  plus  a  suffix  showing  such  relationship :  a  scion 
of  Matthias  would  be  Matthtsson,  contracted  from  Mat- 
thiassohn ;  of  Hans  or  Jans,  Hansen  or  Jansen.  Or  the 
name  of  the  son  might  be  put  in  the  genitive  case — Ebers 
would  thus  plainly  be  the  son  of  one  Eber,  and  Wilken  the 
son  of  Wilko,  O.  H.  G.  Wilhko,  a  nick-name  for  Wilhelm. 
A  similar  procedure  is  exhibited  by  the  large  class  of 
English  names  ending  in  -s,  such  as  Williams,  Edwards, 
Matthews,  and  the  like.  A  large  number  of  family  names 
are,  as  before  indicated,  simply  baptismal  names  become 
hereditary.  It  is  thus  that  we  get  such  combinations  as 
Robert  Franz,  Friedrich  Frtednch  and  Hermann  Paul. 
Quite  a  long  list  of  patronymics  is  formed  by  means  of 
the  suffix  -ing  or  -ung.  Karol-ing-er,  the  Karolings,  are 
the  descendants  of  Karl,  and  Wals-ung-er  are  the  family 
of  Walse.  At  present,  however,  it  is  difficult  to  determine 
how  far  this  mode  of  forming  derivatives  was  in  vogue 
when  names  so  constructed  first  came  into  use.  For  ex- 
ample, we  can  not  tell  whether  a  person  bearing  the  name 
Hartung  or  Henning  was  the  son  of  a  father  called  Harto 
or  Henno;  or  whether  the  parent,  who  may  have  been  sat- 
isfied with  a  single  name,  already  had  the  name  Hartung 
or  Henning.  Occasionally  we  meet  with  an  instance  in 


302  A  History  of  the  German  Language 

which  the  son's  name  comes  from  the  mother,  which  may 
have  happened  in  the  case  of  widows.  We  find  the  family 
name  Hilgard  which  doubtless  has  such  an  origin,  and 
Lieske  was  probably  the  son  of  a  certain  Elisabet. 

In  regard  to  many  names  it  is  clear  that  inheritance 
would  follow  as  a  matter  of  course.  This  "statement  will 
apply  to  bodily  characteristics  which  are  often  transmitted 
and  which  probably  account  for  such  names  as  Kraushaar 
(curly-hair),  Krnmbein  (Cruickshank),  Lang,  Kurtz,  Weiss 
and  Rot(Ji).  Generally,  however,  it  is  more  probable  that 
the  rule  fixed  in  other  cases  gave  the  final  decision  here 
too.  It  may  be  said  in  general  that  the  principle  followed 
in  the  giving  of  names  was  the  same  that  determined  the 
designation  of  other  objects,  and  nearly  all  the  different 
kinds 'of  metaphors  underlie  them,  often  much  disguised, 
that  we  find  concealed  or  open,  in  other  words.  It  needs 
to  be  kept  in  mind  that  in  nearly  all  cases  names  are  not 
given  by  those  who  bear  them,  but  by  others,  and  it  was 
important  that  such  an  appellation  should  be  chosen  as 
would  point  out  or  fitly  characterize  the  person  to  whom 
it  was  applied.  Only  in  those  instances  where  a  person 
was  in  position  to  name  himself  would  this  principle  be 
left  out  of  sight,  and  he  would  select  such  a  name  as 
pleased  his  fancy.  Such  cases  are  most  frequently  met 
with  among  the  Jews,  when  they  were  compelled  by  law 
to  assume  a  second  name.  This  is  the  probable  source 
of  such  names  as  Blumenthal,  Rosenthal,  Bernstein,  Ru- 
binstein, Goldmark,  Saphir,  etc.  Not  a  few  of  the  older 
names  are  an  uncomplimentary  or  even  vulgar  epithet,  but 
having  once  been  affixed  to  an  individual  he  could  not  get 
rid  of  it,  if  he  wished.  Gradually  it  came  to  be  regarded 
as  a  matter  of  course.  The  origin  of  it  was  forgotten  and 
the  appellation  acquiesced  in  without  further  resistance. 
It  is  evident  from  what  has  been  said  that  the  number  of 
possible  roots  from  which  proper  names  could  be  formed 
is  very  large  and  very  multifarious.  But  there  are  some 


A  History  of  the  German  Language  303 

collateral  elements  that  contribute  to  increase  the  variety 
still  more.  One  of  these  is  dialectic  variation  in  the  words 
themselves,  several  words  meaning  precisely  the  same 
thing,  but  differing  in  form.  We  have  a  familiar  in- 
stance of  this  in  the  common  English  names  Fox  and 
Tod(d),  one  being  of  southern,  the  other  of  northern 
nativity.  The  man  who  exercised  the  potter's  craft  might 
be  called  either  Hafner  or  Potter  or  T'opfer,  according  to 
the  part  of  Germany  in  which  he  lived  ;  while  the  cooper 
might  be  named  Binder^  otBottche*,  or  Biittner,  or  Passer, 
or  Kiifer  or  Scheffler.  Another  is  the  peculiar  relation  in 
which  proper  names  stand  to  the  rest  of  the  sentence  in 
which  they  occur.  We  have  already  called  attention  to 
the  fact  that  the  hearer  does  not  take  cognizance  of  every 
sound  or  even  of  every  word  in  a  spoken  sentence.  It 
only  concerns  him  to  note  so  many  words  or  such  portions 
of  longer  words  as  will  suggest  to  his  mind  what  the 
speaker  intends  to  convey.  The  attentive  mind  involun- 
tarily supplies  and  supplements  what  the  hearing  ear  has 
failed  to  catch.  Now,  proper  names  have  no  such  mental 
support ;  they  can  not  be  used  as  integral  parts  of  a 
sentence,  nor  have  they  any  etymological  relation  to  ad- 
jacent words,  so  that  the  hearer  is  unable  to  infer  their 
probable  form  from  the  way  in  which  they  are  used.  As 
it  is  almost  impossible  to  correctly  apprehend  a  name  by 
the  aid  of  mental  suggestion  there  is  a  wide  field  open  for 
the  play  of  fancy ;  the  result  is  likely  to  be  etymological 
vagaries  of  all  sorts.  Every  one  knows  how  difficult  it  is 
to  understand  a  name  correctly  unless  it  be  some  word 
with  which  we  have  become  familiar  in  other  relations. 
While  therefore  we  might  make  no  mistake  with  such 
simple  names  as  Hill  or  Berg,  Stone  or  Stein,  the  chances 
are  at  least  ten  to  one  that  we  would  not  be  equally  fortu- 
tunate  with  Taliafero,  or  Mainwaring,  or  Bodenstedt,  or 
Willainowitz.  We  accordingly  find  here  the  converse  to 
be  true  of  what  has  been  mentioned  before, —  that  names 


304  A  History  of  the  German  Language 

are  more  conservative  in  their  development  and  less  sub. 
ject  to  change  than  the  other  words  of  a  language.  It  is 
true  we  say  Bruno,  Otto  and  Hugo,  though  all  other  German 
final  0's  have  been  changed  to  e ;  but  these  names  have 
been  artificially  fixed  or  stereotyped  with  the  aid  of  Latin 
documents.  In  popular  speech  they  have  long  since  been 
transformed  into  Braun(e),  Hauck  and  Oti(e).  An  inten- 
tional metamorphosis  of  names  is  exhibited  in  the  transla- 
tion of  those  that  were  originally  pure  German  into  Latin 
or  Greek,  or  by  the  affixing  of  termination  that  would  make 
them  declinable. 

NOTE. — An  investigation  into  the  history  of  a  family  named 
Rahmsauer  that  emigrated  from  Germany  into  North  Carolina  some 
two  hundred  and  fifty  years  ago  revealed  the  fact  that  in  about  two 
centuries  the  name  was  found  in  the  following  forms :  Ramsauer, 
Ramsaur,  Ramsour,  Ramseur,  Ramser,  Rarnsir,  Sirram,  Ram,  Sheep, 
Lamb.  The  United  States  offers  a  fertile  field  for  the  study  of  the 
transformation  and  translation  of  family  names.  The  French  names 
Du  Bois,  Boisvert,  Boncoeur,  De  1' hotel,  Pibaudiere,  Lemieux  have 
become  Wood>  Greenwood,  Bunker,  Doolittle.  Peabody  and  Betters, 
respectively.  Loewenstein  appears  as  Livingston,  Loeb  and  Loew  have 
been  transformed  into  Lyon,  Koch  into  Cook,  and  so  on.  One  in- 
stance is  recorded  in  which  a  German  bearing  the  name  of  Feuerstein, 
who  settled  in  turn  in  the  French  and  American  quarters  of  New 
Orleans,  found  himself  called  Pierre-de-feu,  then  Pierre,  then  Stone, 
then  Flint,  and  finally  died  as  Peter  Gun.  I  have  found  an  instance 
in  which  the  modern  name  Rollfuss  had  undergone  the  following 
evolutionary  process.  Its  original  form  was  Rudolf,  which  had  been 
abbreviated  into  Rolf.  This,  in  tuj*n,  had  been  Latinized  into  Rolfus, 
then  Germanized  into  its  present  form.  Some  years  ago  a  German 
whose  family  name  was  Pflaumbaum  applied  to  the  legislature  of  his 
country  for  authority  to  change  his  name  to  Blei:  He  claimed  that 
this  was  the  original  name  of  his  family,  but  that  it  had  been  trans- 
lated into  the  Latin  equivalent  Plumbum.  In  the  course  of  time  his 
Low  German  neighbors  came  to  look  upon  this  as  the  native  word 
Plumbom,  and  the  next  stage  in  the  process  was  very  naturally  its 
transformation  into  the  High  German  Pflaumbaum,  which  means 
the  same  thing,  viz.,  plum-tree. 

A  good  many  names,  have,  like  this  one,  a  meaning  in 
themselves,  but  their  applicability  to  persons  can  not  be 
discovered,  at  least  in  a  majority  of  cases.  Of  this  class 


A  History  of  the  German  Language  305 

are  the  following,  all  of  which  are  of  actual  occurrence  : 
Jerusalem,  Casar,  Breyvogel,  Siisskind,  Kussmaul^  Hopfen- 
sack,  Teufel,  Hellwald,  Viehoff,  Dickhaut,  Riibsamen,  trans- 
lated or  transformed  into  Turnipseed  or  Ripsome,  Butter- 
sack,  Rothauge,  Kalbfell  and  Kalbfuss.  It  is  by  this  method 
that  Sckwarzerd  becomes  Melanchthon,  or  Hdmmerlein  is 
transformed  into  Malleolus,  while  Kurtz  and  Heinrichs  ap- 
pear respectively  as  Curtius  and  Hennci.  By  a  similar  pro- 
cess Schneider  became  Sartor  and  Schmidt,  Faber;  Fischer  and 
Goldschmidt  were  turned  into  Piscator  and  Aurifaber  re- 
spectively ;  Baumann  was  translated  Agricola  and  Grossman, 
Megander.  Weber  appears  as  Textor,  the  maiden  name 
of  Goethe's  mother;  Reuchlin  as  Capnio ;  and  Krachen- 
berger  as  Gracchus  Pierius.  It  will  be  evident  from  what 
has  thus  far  been  said  that  names  the  most  diverse  in  form 
frequently  sprang  from  the  same  root.  And  it  is  further 
probable  that  in  some  cases  several  different  roots  have 
produced  identical  names.  Instances  are  quite  numerous 
where  a  name  seems  to  be,  and  probably  is,  formed  from 
some  familiar  current  adjective  or  noun,  when  if  the  real 
facts  were  known  it  is  a  descendant  of  some  old  nickname 
or  pet-name.  The  familiar  Rot(h)  may  have  started  from 
the  color  of  the  hair;  but  it  may  also  be  a  survival  of 
Rodo  or  Hrodo,  a  nickname  of  Hrodberl  and  Hrodget,  hrod, 
meaning  'fame.'  Baerand  Wo!/ may  be  Jewish  names  of  re- 
cent date,  or  they  may  be  a  reminiscence  of  the  old  German 
Berwald  and  Berwin  or  Wolfgang,  Wolfger,  and  Wolf  hard. 
There  is  small  probability  that  such  names  as  Dank,  Eisen, 
and  Wald  are  recent ;  it  is,  however,  quite  likely  that  they 
take  us  back  to  O.  H.  G.  Danko,  Iso  and  Waldo,  abbrevia- 
tions of  Dankwart,  Isenhard  and  Walther.  Plainly,  then, 
the  interpretation  of  family  names  is  uncertain  and  the 
ground  on  which  the  investigator  stands,  insecure.  When 
we  have  no  means  of  knowing  the  history  of  a  family  and 
have  no  guide  but  the  name  in  its  modern  form,  it  is  gen- 
erally impossible  to  reach  any  even  measurably  safe  con- 


306  A  History  of  the  German  Language 

elusion  as  to  its  origin.     To  enable  one  to  do  this  written 
records  are  indispensable. 

NAMES  OF  PLACES. 

When  we  come  to  the  investigation  of  the  names  of 
places  we  encounter  difficulties  not  met  with  in  the  study 
of  the  names  of  persons.  In  many  cases  these  are  to  be 
traced  to  a  time  when  Kelts  inhabited  Germany,  and  our 
knowledge  of  the  ancient  language  of  this  people  is  still 
very  incomplete  and  fragmentary.  Nor  is  it  probable  that 
it  can  ever  be  much  increased.  For  this  reason  a  large 
measure  of  uncertainty  is  likely  always  to  attach  to  those 
etymologies  that  are  presumably  or  possibly  Keltic.  The 
Keltic  is  frequent  in  the  names  of  plains  and  running 
waters,  less  frequent  in  those  of  towns,  mountains  and 
rivers.  In  those  countries  which  lie  west  and  southwest 
of  Germany,  Keltic  names  are  very  numerous,  and  it  is 
here  first  of  all  the  rivers  that  have  preserved  these  mem- 
orials of  the  earliest  inhabitants.  It  is  claimed  by  some 
writers  that  almost  every  river-name  in  England  is  of' 
Keltic  origin.  Unquestionably  Keltic  are  Rhine,  Danube, 
Main,  Isar,  and  the  names  of  many  smaller  rivers.  The 
root  from  which  Rhein  (Rhine)  is  derived  is  related  to  /Wo> 
and  is  also  found  in  Rhone,  Reuss,  Retnach,  Rhadanau,  Re- 
gen,  etc.  We  may  also  regard  as  Keltic  Breisach  (Brisi- 
acum),  Mainz  (Moguntiacum),  Solothurn  (Solodurum)  and 
Worms  (Borbetomagus).  On  the  other  hand  the  investi- 
gation of  place-names  has  an  advantage  that  is  lacking 
when  we  are  dealing  with  the  names  of  persons.  The  lat^ 
ter,  like  those  compounds  which  we  find  among  the  old 
Germans,  are  for  the  most  part  given  to  children  shortly 
after  birth,  and  could  not  therefore  be  founded  on  actual, 
but  only  on  hoped-for  qualities.  Even  when  proper  names 
were  founded  on  actual  characteristics  we  are  rarely  in  po- 
sition to  know  whether  they  really  represented  the  pecu- 


A  History  of  the  German  Language  307 

liarities  of  the  persons  who  bore  them.  On  the  other 
hand,  in  the  case  of  place-names  we  generally  have  the 
objects  themselves  before  our  eyes  and  can  judge  what  pe- 
culiar features  gave  rise  to  their  designation.  These  des- 
ignations may  characterize  the  position  of  the  place  as 
Hochhausen,  Hochheim,  or  Berghausen,  Bergheim,  or 
Thalhausen,  Thalheim,  or  Wertheim  (see  Wert,  ante), 
Neckarhatisen  and  Rheinheim.  Or  they  may  indicate  the 
natural  surroundings  of  the  place,  as  Aschbach,  a  place 
where  ash  trees  grow ;  Birkenau,  a  place  abounding  in 
birches ;  Buchenbach,  Has(e)lau,  Iben(Eiberi)bach,  Seligen- 
stadt  or  Salweide  (O.  H.  G.  salacha,  willow),  Auerbach, 
Habsburg  (Habichtsburg),  Sfiessartor  Spechtswald,  Ziegen- 
hain,  etc.  Or  they  may  designate  the  uses  to  which  a 
place  has  been  put.  Many  local  names  arose  from  mills 
such  as  Miihlbach,  Molenbeck,  Miihlhausen  and  Miihlheim; 
or  from  an  older  appellation  of  a  mill,  as  Kernbach,  Kehr en- 
bach,  Kirnbach,  the  O.  H.  G.  quirn  meaning  mill.  The 
large  number  of  names  ending  in  -reut  and  -rode  (Eug. 
root)  indicate  that  the  place  occupied  by  them  had  been 
cleared  of  forest.  In  many  instances  the  ancient  name  is 
hardly  recognizable  in  its  modern  form,  Detmold  e.  g.  be- 
ing originally  Thietmella,  a  word  that  is  made  up  of  thiot, 
people,  and  mahal,  harangue,  or  place  of  harangue.  These 
three  categories  of  names — those  having  reference  to  the 
configuration  of  the  land,  to  the  physical  features  of  the 
region,  or  to  the  use  that  was  made  of  the  locality — are 
about  equally  old :  while  the  names  themselves  may  have 
been  formed  and  applied  at  different  times  the  principle 
underlying  the  nomenclature  is  in  all  cases  of  equal  an- 
tiquity. Much  more  recent  are  those  names  which  desig- 
nate the  owners  or  inhabitants  of  a  place ;  and  their  rise 
shows  us  how  the  bond  between  the  owner  and  the  soil 
upon  which  he  dwelt  becomes  closer  and  closer.  Here 
again  we  encounter  the  Old  German  names  en  masse,  but 
in  somewhat  different  combinations.  Bamberg  or  Baben- 


308 

berg,  the  hill  of  a  certain  Babo,  is  an  abbreviation  of  one 
of  the  common  names  beginning  with  badu  and  signifying 
battle  ;  in  Diedenhofen  we  have  another  form  of  the  O.  H. 
G.  diot,  spoken  of  above  and  found  also  in  Detmold;  Hers- 
feld  is  the  property  of  one  Hariulf  or  Heerwolf,  Ruders- 
heim,  of  a  Rudolf ;  while  Witgenstein  designates  the  stone 
of  Witiko,  or  perhaps  Wttikind.  The  owner  is  sometimes 
represented  by  his  official  title  only,  as  in  Bischofsheim, 
Herzogenhorn,  Kaiser  sw'orth  or  Komgstein,  Sometimes 
the  name  is  not  a  reminiscence  of  a  single  possesser  or  in- 
habitant but  of  several,  it  may  be  of  a  whole  clan  as  Sach- 
senhausen  and  Groszsachsen.  Not  unfrequently  a  real  or 
mythical  progenitor  is  commemorated  in  a  name.  This 
is  generally  the  case  in  those  words  ending  in  -ingen  and 
-ungen.  Finally  some  occupation  or  trade  may  give  rise 
to  a  name,  which  is  found  chiefly  in  street  designa- 
tions. When  we  come  to  examine  the  names  on  the 
map  of  England  we  are  struck  with  their  similarity  to 
those  found  in  Germany,  not  only  in  general,  but  in  par- 
ticular. While  it  is  true  that  Keltic  influence  has  been 
less  obliterated,  the  Teutonic  stratum  is  very  plainly 
marked.  The  second  part  of  many  compounds  appearing 
in  Germany  as  -heim,  that  is,  home,  dwelling-place,  be- 
comes -ham  in  England,  while  -throp  or  -thorpe,  which  is 
almost  identical  in  meaning,  is  the  German  -dorf.  Again, 
the  suffix  -ing,  dative  plural  -ingen,  so  common  in  south- 
western Germany  in  such  names  as  Reutlingen,  Esshngen, 
Tuebingen,  appears  in  England  in  almost  the  same  form, 
sometimes  alone  and  sometimes  in  combination  with  -ham, 
as  Basing,  Hastings,  Billingham,  Issington.  Town  and 
-ton,  meaning  an  enclosed  place,  corresponds  to  the  Ger- 
man Zaun,  which  is  occasionally  found  as  a  place  name ; 
its  occurrence  is  rare,  however,  compared  with  its  English 
equivalent.  In  other  parts  of  Europe  occupied  at  various 
times  by  Teutonic  tribes  but  more  particularly  in  France 
both  -ing  and  -ton  are  of  frequent  occurrence  on  the  map, 


A  History  of  the  German  Language  309 

under  various  disguises.  The  latter  may,  however,  some- 
times represent  the  Keltic  4  dun,'  a  hill-fortress  from  which 
it  is  not  always  possible  to  distinguish  it  with  certainty. 
The  German  Burg,  used  both  as  a  separate  word  and  as 
part  of  a  place-name,  e.  g.  Hamburg,  Magdeburg  is  the 
A.-S.  burc(g),  a  fortified  place.  Its  modern  English  rep- 
resentative is  '-burg,'  '-bury,'  '-borough,'  etc.,  and  is  one 
of  the  parts  entering  most  frequently  into  the  names  of 
towns.  When  we  undertake  to  find  the  historical  person- 
age from  whom  the  patronymics  in  -ing  or  -ung  take  their 
rise  our  search  usually  ends  in  disappointment.  Our  ex- 
perience is  similar  to  that  of  the  historian  of  Rome 
who  should  undertake  to  trace  the  Julian,  the  Hor- 
atian,  or  some  other  noble  family  to  a  real  ancestor.  It  is 
plain  enough  that  Reutlingen  or  Esslingen  is  intended  to 
designate  the  place  where  the  Reuthngs  or  the  Esslings 
were  settled  :  these  names  mean  '  at  the  Reutlings  'or  'at 
the  EsshngsJ  but  it  is  only  in  exceptional  cases  that  we 
are  in  position  to  learn  anything  at  all  approaching  to 
definiteness  about  these  particular  clans.  Even  in  those 
instances  like  that  of  the  Karolings  and  Merowings  where 
a  clan  rises  to  distinction  their  origin  remains  obscure.  It 
is  true  in  general  that  all  names  of  places  ostensibly 
derived  from  persons  generally  lack  a  historical  back- 
ground. But  even  in  the  case  of  those  names  that  were 
originally  given  with  reference  to  some  peculiarity  of  the 
place  named  we  are  often  at  a  loss  to  discover  their  ap- 
propriateness ;  the  general  physical  features  of  the  locality 
may  have  undergone  a  change.  A  place  near  a  swamp 
might  properly  be  designated  by  some  compound  term 
ending  in  -bruch,  -moos  or  -ried;  but  after  the  swamp  had 
been  drained  and  the  land  laid  dry  the  appellation  would 
be  unsuitable.  Examples  are  on  record  of  places  bearing 
names  derived  from  the  presence  of  the  beech  or  the  oak, 
but  which  are  now  covered  with  conifers ;  evidently  here 
the  former  were  displaced  by  the  latter.  Now  and  then 


310  A  History  of  the  German  Language 

the  name  itself  may  give  expression  to  the  contradic- 
tion and  such  designations  as  Birkenacker,  Birkenfeld  or 
Eichendcker  and  Eschfeld,  though  clearly  inappropriate,  at 
least  show  what  kind  of  forest  trees  must  at  one  time  have 
covered  the  ground. 

Many  names  have  originated  at  points  to  which  they 
are  no  longer  applicable.  A  name  at  first  given  with 
special  reference  to  some  particular  locality  may,  in  course 
of  time,  have  been  extended  to  neighboring  places,  whence 
have  most  likely  arisen  the  countless  designations  of  vil- 
lages compounded  with  -au,  -bach,  -feld,  and  -wald.  The 
deportation  might  even  extend  to  a  considerable  distance 
where  new  settlers  wished  to  retain  the  familiar  and  be- 
loved name  of  the  place  whence  they  emigrated.  Frank- 
fort-on-the-Oder  has  a  very  slender  connection  with  the 
Prankish  tribe.  This  mode  of  transfer  is  exhibited  on  a 
large  scale  in  the  names  found  on  the  map  of  the  New 
World  almost  from  the  North  Pole  to  Cape  Horn. 

Names  are  often  given  to  places  just  as  they  are  to  per- 
sons, without  regard  to  fitness  or  to  the  relation  that  ought 
to  exist  between  the  sign  and  the  thing  signified.  A  mere 
whim  or  fancy  roaming  free  now  and  then  lights  upon  an 
abstract  term  and  applies  it  to  a  place  ;  occasionally  the 
first  impulse  is  given  by  the  motto  or  the  superscription  of 
a  single  house.  There  is  a  long  list  of  names  ending  in 
-lust  and  -ruhe,  and  such  names  as  Aergernisz,  Emtracht, 
Gelegenheit,  Miszgunst  and  Unverzug  are  not  altogether  un- 
known. 

A  large  majority  of  German  place-names  are  compounds, 
like  the  names  of  persons.  But  besides  this  class,  single 
words  are  not  rare  and  among  them  are  some  of  the  old- 
est names  of  places.  In  many  cases,  however,  we  are 
liable  to  be  deceived  by  appearances  as  in  nicknames  of 
persons :  we  seem  to  have  before  us  a  single  word,  when 
in  fact  it  represents  a  compound  :  just  as  the  son  of  one 
Dietrich  is  frequently  spoken  of  as  Dietrichs,  so  his  land  or 


A  History  of  the  German  Language  311 

his  residence  may  also  be  called  Die  tricks,  the  second  part 
of  the  compound  being  omitted  because  easily  supplied. 
Another  kind  of  ellipsis  occurs.  It  is  natural  to  regard 
the  designation  of  a  place  as  a  word  in  the  nominative 
case  ;  in  fact,  however,  this  is  rarely  so.  Where  we  can 
discover  the  original  form  of  the  word,  it  generally  repre- 
sents the  answer  to  the  question  where  ?  and  is  in  the  dative 
case,  usually  after  the  preposition  zu.  A  few  isolated  exam- 
ples of  this  procedure  remain  in  such  names  as  Andermatt, 
i.  e. ,  an  der  Matt ;  Zermatt,  i.  e.,  zu  der  Matt,  and  in  proper 
names  as  already  cited  The  Dat.  Plur.  is  evident  in  such 
endings  as  felden,  -hausen,  hofen,  ingen  -Ion  O  H.  G. 
lohun,  Dat.  Plur.  of  /J/z,  a  copse  or  grove,  -stelten,  -walden, 
though  without  the  preposition.  The  same  case  is  seen 
in  the  names  of  countries,  such  as  Bayern,  Franken,  Hessen, 
Sachsen  and  Schwaben,  which  are  simply  the  plurals  of 
tribal  names ;  the  full  formula  was  ze  den  Baiern,  ze  den 
Franken,  etc.  Occasionally  the  second  member  of  the 
compound  is  now  a  nominative,  while  the  first  member  is 
still  the  dative  of  an  adjective,  as  Breitenfeld,  Hohentwiel, 
Hamburg  for  Hohenburg,  Stolzenfels,  Wittenberg,  that  is, 
Weiszenberg,  the  L.  G.  for  weisz  being  «////,  Eug.  '  white.' 
It  stands  to  reason  that  the  names  of  places  like  the  names 
of  persons  are  subject  to  the  same  phonetic  laws  as  the 
remaining  words  of  the  language.  Particularly  frequent 
are  the  weakening  and  abbreviation  of  full  compounds  and 
the  assimilation  of  consonants  —  two  kinds  of  phenomena 
for  which  the  conditions  are  much  more  rarely  supplied 
by  the  ordinary  material  of  language.  In  addition  to 
these  changes  it  often  occurs  that  in  ordinary  compounds 
those  regularly  developed  are  in  turn  displaced  by  the  in- 
fluence of  indepedent  words.  For  example,  an  old  Ruitis- 
rode  or  Ruotboldisrode  has  become  the  modern  Ruperath; 
Markberteshusun  is  now  Merkshausen;  and  Alahmuntinga 
has  been  abbreviated  to  Allmendingen.  In  cases  where  the 
first  part  of  the  compound  now  ends  in  -ers  we  have  before 


312  A  History  of  the  German  Language 

us  the  alternative  of  two  different  compounds  of  names  of 
persons:  Herbersdorf  is  the  older  Heribrehtesdorf ;  Elfers- 
hausen  points  to  a  former  Adalf rides husum ;  Liggersdorf  is 
an  abbreviation  of  Luitcardisdorf ;  Ollersbach  is  really 
Adalgerisbach  ;  Volkersdorf  may  be  traced  to  Folchardesdorf , 
Einersheim  was  formerly  Einheresheim  ;  Drommersheim  is  a 
shortened  form  of  Truhtmaresheim ;  Ballersheim  is  the  same 
as  Baldrodesheim,  Oggersheim  the  same  as  Agridesheim;  and 
Frankershausen  was  originally  Frankwardeshuswn.  The 
ending  -sen  of  a  large  number  of  place-names  is  generally 
a  weakened  form  of  -husen,  i.  e.,  hausen,  but  it  may  also  be 
a  remnant  of  the  termination  -es-heim.  The  names  ending 
in  -ikon,  spoken  of  before,  represent  an  older  -ic-hofen,  which 
in  turn  is  a  contraction  of  -inc-hofen.  The  first  member  of 
the  compound  contains  a  patronymic  in  -ing. 

Many  places  are  known  by  two  names,  an  older  and  a 
younger,  one  of  which  is  the  official  designation,  the  other 
that  in  popular  use.  The  former  is  generally  that  handed 
down  in  legal  documents  from  remote  times ;  but  occa- 
sionally it  is  a  mere  translation  of  a  popular  name  and  has 
never  had  any  actual  existence.  Dialectic  differences  are 
much  more  conspicuous  in  the  names  of  persons  than  in 
those  of  places,  for  the  reason  that  the  latter  were  created 
on  the  spot  and  to  suit  the  local  conditions  where  they  are 
used,  while  persons  frequently  migrate  a  long  distance 
from  home.  Characteristic  of  the  Alemanian  territory,  are 
the  forms  in  steten,  •«/«/ and  weiler;  the  ending  -wang  may  be 
either  Alemanian  or  Bavarian.  The  river  Lech  separates 
the  Alemanian  termination  -ingen  from  the  Bavarian  -ing. 
Names  in  -lar  belong  to  Middle  and  North  Germany,  those 
in  -scheid  are  Middle  Franconian,  while  -ungen  is  generally 
Hessian  or  Thuringian.  Low  German  territory  has  al- 
most a  monopoly  of  names  ending  in  -brink,  -biittel,  -fleth, 
-hude,  -koog  and  -kuhl. 

A  careful  study  of  geographical  names,  based  on  accu- 
rate statistics  and  made  with  special  reference  to  the 


A  History  of  the  German  Language  313 

methods  according  to  which  they  are  compounded,  would 
throw  much  light  on  the  connection  between  the  different 
Germanic  clans.  A  beginning  has  been  made  in  this 
direction  by  Dr.  Isaac  Taylor  in  his  "  Words  and  Places," 
which  has  yielded  interesting  and  in  some  cases  surpris- 
ing results.  It  can  readily  be  seen  how  the  study  of  place- 
names  may  be  made  subservient  to  that  of  history,  as  in- 
deed language  itself  is  often  a  valuable  auxiliary  to  the 
historian.  These  are,  however,  questions  that  lie  outside 
of  the  sphere  of  the  present  work. 


APPENDIX. 


I  GIVE  below  four  specimens  of  Dialect  German  for  the 
purpose  of  exhibiting  some  of  the  most  important 
variations  from  the  literary  language.  The  original  of  the 
four  is  by  Klaus  Groth,  and  is  in  the  dialect  of  a  district 
in  Holstein.  Dr.  Groth  has  long  been  the  foremost  cham- 
pion of  the  claims  of  the  Low  German  to  culture  as  a  lit- 
erary language.  The  humor  of  the  poetry  is  well-nigh 
inimitable,  as  is  often  the  case  with  similar  productions ; 
but  this  delicate  flavor  is  nearly  all  lost  by  translation. 
To  be  appreciated,  it  must  be  understood  in  the  original. 
Nor  can  the  pronunciation  be  represented  with  any  near 
approach  to  accuracy.  Still,  the  reader  may  form  some 
idea  of  the  spoken  tongue  from  what  is  here  given.  These 
specimens  will  do  something  toward  showing  how  inade- 
quate the  conception  most  persons  have  of  what  is  meant 
by  the  "  German  language."  Not  only  do  most  foreigners 
have  erroneous  views  on  this  subject,  but  the  great  mass 
of  the  German  people  themselves  have  little  idea  of  the 
astonishing  variety  their  vernacular  presents. 

What  is,  perhaps,  the  most  interesting  dialect  to  Ameri- 
can readers,  the  Pennsylvania  German,  is  not  represented 
here,  for  the  reason  that  it  has  received  a  thoroughly 
scientific  treatment  at  the  hands  of  Dr.  Learned,  of  the 
Johns  Hopkins  University.  Specimens  are,  therefore, 
easily  obtainable. 

MATTEN   HAS'. 

[In  a  dialect  of  West  Holstein.] 

Liitt  Matten,  de  Has',  De  mak  sik  en  Spasz, 
He  weerbi't  Studeern,  Dat  Danzen  to  lehrn, 
Un  danz  ganz  alleen  Op  de  achtersten  Been. 


A  History  of  the  German  Language  315 

Keem  Reinke,  de  Vosz,  Un  dach:  Das  en  Kost! 
Un  saggt:   "  Liittje  Matten,  So  flink  oppe  Padden? 
Un  danzst  hier  alleen  Oppe  achtersten  Been?" 

"  Kumm,  lat  uns  tosam.  Ik  kann  as  de  Dam! 
De  Krei  de  spelt  Fitel,  Denn  geit  dat  canditel, 
Denn  geit  dat  mal  schon  Op  de  achtersten  Been! " 

Liit  Matten  gev  Pot:  De  Vosz  beet  em  dot, 

Un  sett  sik  in  Schatten,  Verspeis,  de  liitt  Matten; 

De  Krei  de  kreeg  een  Vun  de  achtersten  Been. 

D'R    HOS. 

[  In  the  dialect  of  Nuremberg.] 

An  artlier  Hos  Macht  Mandla  in'n  GrosjJ 

Will  e~*  biszla  schtudeiren,  D's  Tanzn  probeiren, 

Un  tanzt  ganz  ella"  Af  'n  hinterstn  Ba~. 

Kummt  pfiffi'  der  Fuchs,  'r  glotzt  woi  e  Luchs 

Und  sagt:   "  Du  bist  g'schwind  Af  n  Banen,  loibs  Kind! 

Wos  tanzst  ganz  ella~  Af  dein  hinterst'n  Ba~?" 

41  Kumm,  tanz  m'r  ze  zweit!  Ich  mach  dei"  Dam  g'scheid; 
Doi  Kraua  tout  geing'ng,  Doi  Fidl  brav  schtreich'ng; 
Su  tanzst  ganz  ella"  Af  dei  hinterstn  Ba"." 

^in  Hos'n  g'fallt  der  Raut,  D'r  Fuchs  beiszt  'n  taud, 
Tout— wer  will's  'n  wiern?     's  Hesla  verziern; 
Doi  Kraua  kroigt's  a.'  Su  e"  hinteres  Ba~. 

DE   HAS. 

[  In  the  dialect  of  Zurich,  Alemanian.] 

's  gumpet  en  Has  Uf  em  griienige  Gras, 

'r  ischt  am  Schtudire,  Wott  'sch  Tanze  probire 

Un  hiippft  ganz  elei"  Uf  'm  hindere  Bei". 

De  Fuchs  kchunnd  dezue  Un  lad  em  kei"  Rue, 

Seid:   "TusigschSns  Hasli,  Wie  schpringscht  uf  em  Grasli! 

Un  tanzischt  elei*  Uf  em  hindere  Bei"." 

"  Kchum,  gib  mer  di"  Hand,  Mer  tanzid  mitenand. 
I  mache  dir  'sch  Meidli,  D'  Kchra  giget  is  weidli, 
Mer  tanzid  Drei — elei"  Uf  em  hindere  Bei"." 

Er  schtreckt  em  sis  Kchapli,  De  Has  gid  em  's  Tapli, 
Hed's  Tanze  vergasse,  De  Fuchs  hed  en  g'frasse, 
Und  Kchra  die  fligt  hei  Mit  erne  hindere  Bei". 


*The  tilde"  represents  a  nasal  sound. 


316  A  History  of  the  German  Language 

'ES   KLASLA,  DER   HOS. 

[  In  the  dialect  of  Coburg.] 

'es  Klasla,  der  Hos,  Macht  sich  lust'g  im  Gros, 
'r  schtudirt  derbei  garn,  Mocht's  Tanz'n  gelarn, 
Und  tanzt  ganz  ella  Auf  sei'n  hinterst'n  Ba. 

Kiimmts  Fuchsia  abei  Un  denkt:   Du  bist  mei! 
Segt:   "  Klasla,  Herrje!  Wie  kannsta  gegeh! 
Und  danzst  doch  alia  Auf  dein  hinterst'n  Ba?" 

"  Kumm,  ge  har  zu  mir !  Ich  danz  sch5  mit  dir; 

Di  Kraa  geigt  auf,  No  gehts  erst  hellauf — 

Des  sollst'  emol  sa  Auf  dein  hinterst'n  Ba."  , 

D's  Klasla  schlegt  ei:   Mei  Fuchs  packt'n  fei, 
Tregt  'n  hinter  e  Heck  Un  leszt  sich  wohl  schmeck;; 
Die  Kraa  kriegt  a  So  e  hinteres  Ba. 


THE    END. 


UC  SOUTHERN  REGIONAL  LIBRARY  FACILITY 


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